


Wings of Change

by Cannibal_Wings



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Body Horror, Cannibalism, M/M, Wing AU, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-08-05 15:40:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 41,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cannibal_Wings/pseuds/Cannibal_Wings
Summary: Eddie liked to think of himself as human, a human bonded for life to an alien parasite, but a human none the less. That was until he grew large wings to save both himself and a wounded Venom from decorating the pavement with their organs.





	1. Human's Don't Grow Wings, V.

It should be stated and known that Edward Allen Brock did not like heights.They weren’t his friend, and no matter how much he protested he could not convince Venom otherwise. “Hey,” Eddie said, “hey you know I love you right?” 

**Of course I know you love me. I love you too.**

“Ok, ok, so you know that lovers listen to each other right?”

**Yes. I listen to you all the time.**

“No, I don’t think you do,” Eddie said his voice wavering. “I think you _hear_ me, but I don’t think you _listen_ to me.” 

**Now why would you say something as hurtful as that?**

“Because I’ve been screaming at you to stop climbing this building and yet you keep on climbing!” 

**Ah you want us to stop climbing? We can do that.** Venom stopped his ascent and removed his hands and foot-claws from the building. At once they started to fall at an alarming speed and Venom could hear his host scream shrilly. 

“Oh god, oh god, oh god! Please start climbing the building again!” 

Venom chuckled and let his claws drag through the concrete until they slowed and he could get a better grip. **I got us. I will always catch us.** He could feel that his host’s heartbeat had spiked dramatically as well as his respiratory rate. **You didn’t find that funny?**

Eddie gasped out,“No! No I did not. Don’t do that again.” 

**What was that? Do it again?**

“Venom…” 

**I won’t, don’t worry. Can’t have you going into cardiac arrest.**

Venom continued his climb, they were about halfway up the side of the building. They used to tear up the walls at a breakneck pace, but reports of massive property damage put a halt to that. Now they had to climb carefully and not leave deep gouges in the sides of the building. It was all part of their plan to blend in more and not be discovered as quickly. “Why are we doing this again?” 

There was a chuckle, low and deep as Venom crested the top of the building. **For the view of course.** Venom stood up and turned around so Eddie could see. He receded a bit from his face so that his Other could see with his own eyes. **Your world is so pretty from up here. Down on the streets it’s dirty full of filth but up here I can see the potential.**

Eddie made them take a step back from the edge of the roof. “Yeah, sure, it’s pretty I guess. I’m sorry V, I just do not do well with heights. Even indoors.” 

Venom watched a plane fly overhead, this time it was higher in the air and the noise didn’t bother them. **You’ve flown in one of those, have you not?**

“I have.” 

**What did you do? That’s awful high Eddie.**

“I uh, I usually just knock myself out with medicine as soon as I get on the plane and time it so it wears off just before landing. If I get a middle seat I can pretend I’m not thousands of feet in the air and one malfunction away from death.” 

**You really are a loser.**

“The fear of heights is a perfectly reasonable fear for a human!” Eddie protested as Venom walked them closer to the edge. “It’s not like we can fly, we’re very breakable, and we’re helpless up in the sky if the plane breaks, the parachute fails, or we slip off a ledge.” 

**I am very aware of how breakable you are. Remember last week you fell down the stairs and managed to break your leg? How you survived as a species is a mystery to me.**

“You’re the one who is always saying how you’ll catch me if I ever fall. So who’s fault was that really?”

Venom didn’t say anything in return. He had been distracted by something shiny on the ground and didn’t notice that Eddie had tripped until it was far too late to stop it. He figured it would be easier and less noticeable if he healed any damage done than expose himself and try to stop Eddie’s tumble. **You should really be more careful. What if there comes a time when I’m not there for you?**

They sat down on the ledge and let their legs swing back and forth. Eddie saw through Venom’s eyes now and asked, “That won’t happen Love, it can’t happen right? I accepted the bond permanently, we’re one right?” 

An uncomfortable silence stretched out between them. The city’s skyline was like their own set of stars, they made up for the natural ones blocked out by light pollution. The moon made the water in the bay glitter. **I won’t leave you.** He said finally.

“That’s not what I asked.” 

**I can still be… separated. From you. Our bond is strong and I have no desire to leave you, but a traumatic enough injury or a sustained high frequency soundwave could rip me from you.**

“Then what was the point of doing the permanent bond thing? You made such a big deal about it.”

**It was a commitment Eddie. I had to be sure that you wanted me. For as long as your heart would beat in your chest you would want me.**

“And if I wasn’t willing to agree? Would you have left?” 

**I don’t know. Maybe. Eddie let me tell you something.** Eddie waited while Venom gathered his words. **When we first met I revealed to you that I was kind of a loser on my home planet as well.**

“Yeah you never elaborated on that. I thought you were just trying to get me to like you.” 

**I’m elaborating now so shut up. Back home the goal of our species is to take over a host completely and spread through the galaxy. However I always found that idea… lacking. I was always far more interested in the idea of living _with_ a host, alongside the host, growing and learning with the host.**

“And I don’t suppose your friends back home thought that was a worthwhile life goal huh?” 

**They wanted to cage me, kill me, dissect me, and purge my lineage from our race. I was considered _broken,_ Eddie. They wanted to figure out what made me tick, what made me different. To deviate from the norm is to invite death, according to the Klyntar.**

“Klyntar?” Eddie interrupted. 

**That is what we are called, my species. Klyntar. Mean’s cage.**

“Why would you want your species to be called something like that?” Eddie felt a small wave of annoyance run over him.

**We do not have the time to explain the complex and long history of the Klyntar to you. Not tonight. But we do have forever. Perhaps I’ll drip feed the information to you, as you drip feed me delicious human brains.**

“Yuck.”

**Quiet, I was not done with my story. Before I was set to be executed the Klyntar known as Riot stepped in. They wanted to lead a mission to search out a new planet. They were looking for recruits and saw potential in me. They figured that while I might be _broken_ I could also be _fixed_. I just needed to take over a host and experience the feeling. They were certain I would abandon my foolish desires and comply to our species most basic instinct. I was allowed to go on the mission under one condition, if I failed to follow Riot’s orders I was to be killed.**

“Clearly you didn’t end up doing what Riot wanted you to do. But,” Eddie was curious and had to ask, “you wanted to, didn’t you?” 

**Yes. For the longest time I wanted nothing more than to fit in with the rest of my kind. To be seen as normal and to be a model Klyntar. I saw the mission as my last chance at redemption, to fix what was wrong with me and prove that I could be what I was born to be. But I failed. There was no way I could override what I really wanted. It was not a lie when I said you changed my mind Eddie. I was set to follow Riot blindly, taking you, taking advantage of you. I was going to use you up and spit you out, just another step in the ladder to the domination of this planet. But then you accepted me, and even though it was small, those few times you said “We”, it brought back my memories of what I truly wanted. A partnership, a bond, a…** Venom hesitated.

“A what?” 

**Too cheesy not saying it.**

“Oh come on we were having a moment. You’re ruining the moment.” 

**No, it sounds dumb out loud and I won’t look dumb.**

“There’s literally nobody up here to see or hear you but me. And you already know I don’t fear looking dumb.”

Veom laughed. **We are very aware of that. You make of fool of yourself daily.** There was more silence before Venom finally said, **A friend. I was looking for a friend ok?**

“Oh V, that’s… that’s adorable.” 

**Do not coddle me! I shouldn’t have said that! See? I knew it was dumb.**

“Venom we make out on the regular and confess our love for each other daily,” Eddie said bluntly. “Admitting you wanted a friend is no big deal. Really.”

 **Knowing all this. You can now see that it would have been hard for me to decide what to do if you did not wish to permanently bond with me. As a… parasite,** Venom spat the word, **I cannot remain free living for long on this planet. And finding suitable hosts is challenging. It is likely I would have stayed with you, but I would not have been happy and I would have tried to find a new partner who would accept all of me.**

“You really did get lucky V. You were here...what, six months? Six months before you stumbled onto me. And that only happened because you were inside Maria and I recognized her. So much of this relied on dumb luck and chance.” 

**Perhaps it was destiny?**

“Oh I like that.” Eddie looked out over the city. “I was destined to fuck up in New York, then move here and continue to fuck up until there was almost nothing left for me to fuck up.” 

**We could have failed at saving the world.**

“Oh that would have been a hilarious end to the life of Eddie Brock. Fucked up so hard he doomed the world.” 

**You fucked up the adequate amount to secure a good future. That takes talent.**

Eddie shrugged, Venom could feel it. “Eh, I don’t know about that. You did most of the work. I just remember screaming a lot. And eating a lot of strange things from garbage cans.” 

**Speaking of food, we are hungry. Very hungry. We should get something to eat.**

“What were you thinking? Burgers? Pizza… Chinese?” 

**Human would be nice.**

Eddie groaned and together they stood up and stared out over the city. “Why are you like this?” 

**Heads are so delicious and squishy. Surely you must understand even that small bit? There’s something in them that is simply to die for. Maybe you should ask your doctor friend.**

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea, only he thinks you’re dead. Anne too. Maybe we could do some research and find out a substitute for the whole brain eating thing. I was uh, I was fine with it for a while at first. But V it’s really disgusting.” 

Venom didn’t reply, they’d had this conversation before and it rarely changed. They’d bicker, decide not to engage in it after a lengthy discussion, then a few days later they’d find themselves over the corpse of a person who did not deserve to breathe any more air. Thus the cycle would continue, and Venom assumed that the cycle would always repeat. **Pizza is fine. But not that place on Bush Street.**

Eddie frowned. “What’s wrong with Escape?” 

**New York style pizza cannot compete with Chicago style pizza.**

“You’re killing me V,” Eddie said. “Absolutely murdering me right now. Besides we can’t afford that, I’ll just order some cheap carry out or delivery when we get back. Check the funds. Now, let's get down from here. Carefully! And slowly! And oh god don’t make me look.” 

**Eddie relax, it won’t be that bad.**

Eddie opened his eyes just enough to see that Venom had tilted his whole body over the ledge. “Oh you’re going down head first. Great.” He clenched his fists as he felt Venom jump and closed his eyes. The first few moments of falling were always the worst. It was like being on a roller-coaster at the first seconds of a drop but extended for an agonizing half minute. Eventually he could feel their claws catch on the concrete of the wall and the rhythmic motion of their gait set in as Venom slowed their pace and moved down towards the ground. Eddie opened his eyes against the queasiness in his stomach and saw through his Other’s eyes. When he could feel all four limbs on the building it wasn’t as bad. “Why do you always insist on going headfirst? Can’t we climb down like we climb up?” 

**We are not climbing down a building ass-first like a gorilla.**

Eddie wanted to protest but Venom leapt from the building to grab hold of another. He scaled that one and moved to leap to another. It was in these moments that he was thankful he didn’t live in New York anymore. The buildings there were much, much taller, and far more numerous than the rather limited San Francisco skyline. Venom loved to climb and jump and Eddie didn’t have the heart to limit that activity so they often ended up in the financial district. He didn’t think his heart would survive living in New York. At least they weren’t hurting anyone like this. 

Their body moved as one now, with Eddie giving full control over to Venom. It was much easier this way. He still didn’t have the reflexes or skill to move around like his Other did. And Venom liked the way the city fell away between his claws. They were making good time and Eddie was always amazed at how fast they could traverse the city. Some nights it almost felt too small for them. 

Venom was about to leap to another roof when he skidded to a stop. Eddie could feel through him that something was wrong. **Look across at the rooftop, there are people there.**

“That’s strange, do you think they’re in trouble?” Eddie wasn’t sure if people usually hung out on rooftops. “Should we investigate?” 

Extreme unease radiated from Venom and he hoped Eddie could feel it. **They’ve spotted us.** Through Venom’s eyes Eddie could see all the humans on the roof turn their attention to them. People tended to scream when they noticed them, they found that out the hard way when they tried to do some vigilante justice a few months ago. After that failed they switched to a more stealthy, hunter stalking its prey technique. They still got to eat the bad guys, but with a lot less screaming.

However these people weren’t shrieking in terror. In fact they seemed to getting closer to the edge of their rooftop. “What are they doing?” Before Venom could even make a guess at an answer Eddie saw three of them pull out what looked like a large gun, or perhaps a canon.

Venom growled low and deep in his throat. **Why are you always doing that?** He could feel Eddie raise both of their hands up in the air.

“They have guns Love, it’s a very sensible thing to do when someone pulls a gun on you.” 

**If we had eyes to roll in this form we would roll them. You’re bulletproof when wearing me, put your damn hands down.**

“But are we canon proof?” 

Venom didn’t bother answer, it wasn’t as if they’d get a chance to hit them anyways. He ran for the ledge and leapt. The plan was to launch over them and assess the situation. If they needed to die then they would die, but if they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time he would ignore them. But something told him this was not a simple accident. 

They were halfway across the gap when they discovered what the cannons fired. It was not any sort of ammunition they were used to. It hit them both hard, like a wall, or a thick wave. It was also ear-splittingly loud. Venom roared in pain and all of Eddie’s nerves fired at once. He could feel Venom slip from his body as he hit the roof and rolled. His shoulder burned from the force of the impact and he came to a stop a few paces behind the group of people. He was dazed and pain flared up all over him. Eddie managed to get one arm underneath him and he pushed himself up and lifted head. “Don’t shoot,” he said weakly. “We’re not a threat…” He glanced around anxiously for Venom, he couldn’t feel him like he normally could. 

His Symbiote was laying not too far away, clearly dazed and not moving. Eddie started to crawl towards him. “You hurt him,” Eddie said to the people who were still aiming their weapons at them. Sound guns, he realized far too late. “V? V you ok?” Venom started to move slowly, he lifted a tendril up in Eddie’s direction. He reached for it and felt Venom wrap around his finger and slide up his arm. As soon as they made contact Eddie’s body felt both relieved and panicked. There was a lot of hurt coming from Venom, the kind of hurt they hadn’t experienced together for a long time. The rest of Venom slid into his body and he could hear his voice in his mind again. **That hurt.** He said weakly. **That hurt a lot.**

“Sound guns Love, they have sound guns.” Eddie turned his attention back to the mysterious people on the roof. “What do you want from us?” They didn’t answer, instead they lifted their weapons again. Eddie felt a wave a anger flow through him as Venom took over. “No,” Eddie gasped out, “run V, run!” 

**They hurt us.**

“I know but if they hit you with that again…” Eddie trailed off and hoped that Venom understood. He could feel and hear the growling vibrating through his body. Venom snarled, leapt towards the people, ripped through one of them before running down the side of the building and jumping. They heard shouts of alarm and the sound cannons firing again. Venom was already across the street and climbing another building. Eddie could feel their grip slip as the sound-waves crashed into them but Venom growled again, low and murderous and dug his claws in, determined, and heaved themselves up the building despite the pain. “You can do this,” Eddie said in support. Venom acknowledged them with a grunt and thrust his body up another ten feet. 

They paused to look back at the people on the roof and quickly wondered the range of their weapons. He pressed their forehead to building, body trembling with effort and leapt again. There was another round of searing pain as the sound guns hit their mark. Venom fell away from Eddie and they lost their grip on the building. Eddie cried out from both pain, panic, and worry. 

He was falling on his back, he could see Venom just above them falling as well. “My hand!” He shouted out. “Grab my hand!” Venom’s body moved in air and tried to extend down to reach him. He could barely curl a tendril around Eddie’s finger but it was enough for the human to pull him in close to his body. Venom didn’t have the energy to return to Eddie’s body where it was safe, he stayed curled up in a ball that Eddie kept close to his chest. “I got you,” he said, then rolled over so he facing the ground. “Now I just have to figure out how to get us.” 

They were too far from the building and Eddie knew that he didn’t have any way of gripping the glass or concrete on his own. He really did need Venom he realized. “H-Hey do you think I could survive this fall?” 

Venom’s voice was so faint in his ears he wondered if he hallucinated it. **No. Will die. Sorry… Eddie.**

He hugged the Venom Symbiote tighter and closed his eyes. “I love you V.” Eddie prepared to feel the cold concrete rush up to meet his body, to feel his bones broken and shattered and his insides become outsides, but instead a different pain greeted him. His back felt like it exploded and he wondered if it was normal to have your organs burst out your back when you hit the ground. Only they were still falling, he could feel the air on his face. 

Hot blood soaked through his clothes and he could feel it run down his skin. It was like something was climbing out of his back, unfurling, reaching towards the sky. He cried out in agony and gripped Venom tighter. He was terrified of dropping him. His body rolled and spasmed as the sensation of something ripping its way out of his skin intensified. Then he gasped as his fall was abruptly halted, he felt his legs and neck jerk forward, it was like he was being stopped by a chain or hangman’s noose, or a parachute. 

He opened his eyes against the pain and blinked the tears away. They were definitely still falling but not as fast. He glanced behind his shoulder and almost dropped Venom out of surprise. It wasn’t a parachute but _wings_. They were big, leathery, red webbing extended out between black fingers. Eddie didn’t understand what had happened, or how, but he did know a second chance when he saw one. 

The wings looked like arms so he figured they must move like arms. He brought them down and forward like he was making waves at a pool and felt the air move in the opposite direction. They jerked back higher into the air and he repeated the motion. They certainly weren’t falling anymore, but they weren’t flying either. The sound cannons fired again but they didn’t hurt Eddie the same way they hurt Venom. He felt his poor Symbiote writhe in his arms and he turned defensively and angled the wings downward, moving on instincts he shouldn’t have had. 

They were falling again, but it felt different this time, controlled. The city blocks melted away below them in Eddie’s mad dash to escape the sound cannons. He realized that he wasn’t sure how to actually stop now that they were moving. Another building was approaching fast and he didn’t know what to do. Venom was silent as the dead and he feared his partner might actually be gone. With the building coming up Eddie cupped the wings in a desperate attempt to slow down. They hit the side with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs. His sneakers scrambled for purchase on the glass and he wrenched one hand out to try to stop their fall. The other hand still held Venom clutched to his chest. 

“V I could really use your foot claws now!” He could feel the Symbiote in his arms move, and Eddie breathed out a sigh of relief that his Other wasn’t dead. But no claws manifested themselves for use. They were still slipping. Eddie tried pumping the wings on his back. He was able to keep himself pressed against the wall that way and slowly he moved up the towards the roof, one struggling footstep at a time. 

Finally he reached the top and heaved himself over and rolled away to lay flat on his back, or as flat as he could get with wings. “We’re alive Love, I did it, I got us.” 

Venom was resting against his chest, and slowly, very slowly, he melted back into Eddie’s body. “Are you ok?” He asked anxiously.  


**Hurt. And dazed. Very weak.What happened?**

“We fell from the building, they fired a lot of those sound canons at us, you must have blacked out.”

**How did you… What are… Eddie?**

“I don't know, I don’t know. I thought it was you. That’s not you?” 

**No. That’s you. It feels like you. Eddie those are wings.** Venom seemed incredibly perplexed. **I did not know humans could grow wings.**

“We can’t,” Eddie wheezed. Now that they weren’t in immediate danger his mind was starting to catch up with him. “Oh god Venom we almost died!” 

**But we didn’t,** his low laugh resonated within his head. **We didn’t. You saved us this time, you’re the hero, Eddie.**

Eddie let his head rest against the cold roof and let out the breaths he didn’t know he was holding. “No more rooftops,” he said. “No more climbing buildings, no more falling. Our feet are staying firmly planted on the ground.” 

**Why? You can fly now.**

“The wings will go away, right? Like the rest of you when we’re not using you?” 

**Those aren’t mine,** Venom said again. **They’re _yours_ Eddie.**

He heaved himself up to a sitting position. “They better not be.” He took a moment to look at them more closely. They responded to his thoughts, he was able to move them like any other limb. He brought one up so he could feel it with his hands. The texture was leathery, the parts that held the bone and muscle were black like Venom’s body, and the webbing between was a deep crimson red. They reminded him of dragon wings from fantasy books and movies. He could feel Venom manifest small tendrils to run over the wings too, he wanted to feel them. 

**They’re beautiful.** He commented. **I like them.**

“Wonderful, well I don’t.” Despite all the muscles in his body screaming in protest he stood up. His back felt heavier, his balance was off. He took a few unstable steps back before he swayed and managed to stay in one place. He heard Venom tell him to shift his weight forward to help. They walked to the edge and looked around. Neither of them could see their attackers. “Who do you think those people were? And why did they want us?” 

**They knew how to harm us. Who knows how to do that?**

“Anne and Dan, but they wouldn’t. They have no reason to. So that leaves… survivors from the Life Foundation? There had to be some scientists that lived. But why hunt us down?” Eddie ran a hand over his face, he was sweating, tired, and hurt all over. “Do they think we’ll start hurting people? Are they afraid of that?” 

**Maybe they want us for experiments? We won’t let ourselves be captured.**

“Then you better learn how to fight sound canons because with those things we seem pretty fucked.” Eddie walked the edge of the roof and couldn’t spot any ladders to assist their way down. “Can you climb? Can you get us down?” 

**No. Far too weak. I can barely talk. Why don’t you fly us down?**

Eddie scoffed, “No way. I don’t know how to fly. These things only barely saved us, they nearly killed us a different way instead. Maybe there’s an access door or something for maintenance staff.” He could hear Venom groan and suddenly his body was tossed off the roof. 

He started to scream and Venom just said **Fly you dumbass, fly.**

Carefully he opened his wings again and felt them catch on the air. They wrenched back and he pushed them down despite the pain it caused. He knew this probably wasn’t how you were supposed to do that. Eddie managed to control their decent and glide horizontally between buildings. “Never do that again,” Eddie said and just heard Venom laugh. “People are going to see us,” he commented. 

**Look for an alleyway.**

Eddie nodded and spotted an old brick building with a darkened alleyway. He angled toward it and roughly hit the wall and fell the last fifteen feet to the ground. “That,” Eddie groaned, “could have gone better.” He pushed to his feet and looked around. It didn’t seem like anyone had seen them fall. They made they way out of the alley and glanced around for a street sign, he was disoriented being up in the air and didn’t know exactly where they were. 

Suddenly Venom spoke up. **Hungry.**

“Right, right, I’ll get food at hom-” Eddie stopped abruptly as his arm shot out without warning. Venom flowed through it and grabbed a man by the head and dragged him back. Eddie took a few stunned steps backward into the darkness before the man was brought close to him. **Hungry!** Venom’s voice bellowed in his mind. 

Without hesitation Eddie bit into the man who didn’t even have time to scream. He silenced any other noises the man could have made with fangs buried deep into his throat. Blood welled up and filled his mouth and Eddie drank it down like hot coffee. He chewed, his jaws working to move meat down his throat. He broke free long enough to gasp and tear the man’s shirt off his chest. Then he sunk his teeth back in and greedily ate his fill. 

He scooted away and pressed his back against the wall and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He could feel blood smear up his face. “The _fuck_ was that Venom?” The Symbiote slithered from his body and engulfed the rest of the body. When it retreated there was nothing left of the man. No clothes, no bones, not even a shoe. “Did you hear me?” 

**Hungry.** Venom said again. **Starving. Couldn’t help it.**

“Jesus fuck…” Eddie squeezed his eyes shut. “That guy probably had a family, what if he had kids waiting for him at home? We just… that was murder.” 

Venom wrapped himself around Eddie and apologized quickly. **We’re sorry. Eddie, we’re sorry. We didn’t mean- I didn’t mean to do that. We felt fine on that rooftop, tired but fine, but then all of a sudden it hit us like a bus. The hunger. We’re sorry.** Eddie leaned over to vomit but a blackened hand covered his mouth. **Keep it down or we’ll need another.**

Eddie swallowed back bile and didn’t throw up. When he was certain it would stay down he moved Venom’s hand away from his face. “I forgot what you were like,” he said finally. “What you can do.” 

**I’m sorry.** Venom repeated. **We should go home now. Before anything else happens.** He helped Eddie up, he was feeling a lot better after eating but still couldn’t fully form around his host. Even fighting Riot hadn’t hurt this bad. Eddie peered around the wall of the alley and hesitated on stepping out. Venom’s wet tongue was against his face. “Not the time,” Eddie muttered. **Cleaning the blood away, humans won’t scream instantly now.**

He looked back at his wings sighed. “They might anyways.” They were dragging on the ground and Eddie attempted to pull them up and fold them against his back. It was like folding his arms, he decided, very big arms with long fingers. “How noticeable?” 

**Very.** Venom heard Eddie sigh. **What? I wasn’t going to lie to you. They sort of look like a costume, it’s fall isn’t it? Say it’s a costume.**

Eddie nodded and stumbled out into the crowd of people. He was pleasantly surprised by how much nobody seemed to mind. He could hear a few people take pictures, they didn’t turn off the shutter sound on their phone. It was a long walk back home. Eddie was more than exhausted by the time they got back. His back was aching from the weight of the wings and there small pains all over that Venom couldn’t heal yet. He put the key into the lock pushed the door open then fell face first to his floor. Venom caught him so he didn’t smash his face into the fake wood flooring. Then he moved Eddie’s legs out of the way and shut the door and locked it. **You should sleep Eddie. We need to recover.**

“K,” Eddie replied and didn’t move from the floor.

 **We’re not sleeping on the floor.**

“K,” Eddie said again and remained on the floor. 

**Eddie…** Venom manifested two long tendrils that he used to pull Eddie’s body across the floor. **Sometimes I do not know why I even bother with you.**

Eddie mumbled, “You love me,” as he was dragged across his living room. “No bed, don’t want to bleed on the sheets.” The direction he was being pulled shifted and he felt cold tile on his face. Then he was tossed roughly into the tub and cold water rushed over him. “Fuck you V,” Eddie said and scrambled to right himself. He was a tangle of wet clothes and wings. He ripped off the remains of his shirt and kicked off his wet jeans with far more difficulty. Then he sat awkwardly under the water as Venom ran a bar of soap over his body and cleaned off the blood from his back. 

**You’ve healed up back here. There are no open wounds.**

“Not sure if that’s good news or not.” Eddie poured some shampoo into his hand and halfheartedly rubbed it through his hair. “Love what am I going to do?” 

Venom didn’t respond right away. He cupped his body and collected water to dump over Eddie’s head and finished rinsing out the suds. Water ran off of his wings and poured onto the floor. Venom tossed a towel on the ground to soak some of it up. **You’re going to live, Eddie.**

“I know that,” Eddie said and pushed himself to his feet. Venom steadied him. “You wouldn’t let me die.” 

**Nope.**

He looked at himself in the mirror, he looked like shit, well, even more like shit. Worse shit. “I don’t suppose this is all a really bad dream huh?” Venom appeared at his side and shook his head. “Didn’t think so.” He toweled off with Venom’s help, the Symbiote nipped his ear affectionately. “Not right now, I’m not in the mood.” 

Venom could already sense an impending break down. Eddie was prone to those. **What’s wrong.?**

“Are you certain these,” Eddie lifted the wings up and spread them out, “aren’t you?” 

**Absolutely sure. They’re all you.** He caught a tear slip down Eddie’s face. **What is it? What’s wrong?**

Eddie stared long and hard at himself in the mirror then sat down on his bathroom floor and pulled his legs up so he could bury his face in them. The leathery folds of his wings wrapped around his body and Venom could hear him cry. He wanted to tease him, call him a name, get him to laugh or at least be angry, but now he sensed was not the time. 

Gently Venom pulled apart Eddie’s wings and slipped his face inside and said, **Eddie will you tell me what’s wrong? You know I’m not the best at this… comfort thing.** He ran a tendril across Eddie’s neck and cupped his face. Eddie lifted his head and he looked absolutely miserable. **Darling talk to me.**

“What am I?” Eddie whispered.

**A human?**

“That’s what I thought but now I’m not sure.” 

**I don’t understand why this is bothering you so, you’ve been bonded to me for a year now, you’re used to my body and what we can do to yours. These wings don’t seem like that big of a deal.** He was very concerned, Eddie had always been good at just dealing with the strange things that happened in his life. He took very well to their bond and didn’t question much. 

“To you!” Eddie pressed his face back into his legs. “Before there was always a divide between me and you. Like,” he looked up again and said, “We’re _one_ but at the same time there’s a distinction between where you start and I end. I can look at myself in the mirror and see Eddie Brock, the journalist, the human. And when we decide to be Venom it’s very clearly you. But now look at me. I can’t claim that this is human.”

Venom was very quiet for a long time. He needed to phrase his next words very carefully. **I am not human. I am Klyntar and our whole species existed by changing our shape to match our hosts. I do not have a solid concept of “self” besides my thoughts. I can’t… I’m trying to understand you Eddie.** He pressed his face against Eddie’s. **You seem to take the perception of your human form very seriously. I will respect that. But I will also say that perhaps you are overthinking this? Eddie you may be able to hide these wings like you hide me. Maybe they will fall off? Maybe this was all an accident.**

“I don’t think that matters, V. I still _grew_ them. Humans don’t grow wings. I think maybe, V do the Klyntar have wings?” 

**We’re all formless blobs Eddie. You’ve seen me detached from you. Were you thinking that this was somehow me fault?**

“I don’t know!” Eddie looked up and searched Venom’s face for answers he didn’t have. “Maybe you’re rubbing off on me or something. Changing my DNA or something. You’ve never had a permanent bond right? Maybe this is part of it?” 

**I don’t know. I’ve never heard of this… but then again most of our kind chews up and spits out hosts like bad tots.** Eddie covered his face again. Venom pressed his into the back of Eddie’s neck. **If you’re worried about not being _you_ anymore then we should talk to Dan. He might be able to run a test or something. Figure out what is going on.** He nuzzled Eddie and said, **Will that help? Will that make you feel better?**

“M’by,” Eddie said into his leg. 

**Then we will go see them tomorrow.** Venom left Eddie’s wing cocoon to grab more towels to dry him off. Then he pulled him to his feet and lead him into their living room. Venom opened a window to get some fresh air flow while Eddie sat down awkwardly on the couch. He was trying to figure out how to sit with wings. Then Venom moved back and set two things down on Eddie’s lap. **You should order pizza before you sleep, and watch some TV to clear your thoughts.**

Eddie cracked a smile and said, “Thanks V.” He lifted the phone to his ear after hitting the pizza speed-dial and asked, “What are you feeling tonight?” 

**Garbage pizza.**

“Oh yeah, an everything pizza would be nice. Good call.” He placed the order and spread his fingers out so Venom could hold his hand. “We’re going to have to tell Anne you’re alive. She’s going to be mad we hid it from her.” 

**You’re not with her, I don’t see why she should know everything about you, about us.**

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Don’t be like that, she’s my friend. And she helped me when I thought I was losing my mind. She didn't have to do that, neither of them did. I came in acting like I was crazy, they could have just called the cops and had me taken away.” 

**They’re good people.** Venom agreed. **We will apologize for keeping our relationship a secret.**

“You don’t think she’ll refuse to help once she sees these?” 

**Eddie she watched you nearly eat a police officer. I don’t think a pair of wings is going to bother her anymore than that would have.**

“Oh but you don’t know that for sure.” 

**Neither do you.**

“Got me there,” Eddie leaned back and closed his eyes. “Will our life ever not be weird?” 

**Doubt it.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently in the comics Venom grew wings. I'm not sure the whole context, but it was enough to make me need to want something with that idea. And thus, this was born. I've seen the movie twice now, so I'm pretty sure I've got a decent handle on their characters. Not the best, but better than my last attempt. 
> 
> It'll be multiple chapters, not sure how many, probably four? I'll be updating it between my other WIP fics.  
> If you like wing AU type stories I have two more, Wings Over Dunwall for Dishonored and Aliferous for Fallout 4.  
> Like parasite/host relationships? Check out my longer running series for Outlast called Survivors.  
> Need more cannibalism? Dark Cravings might be for you, it's another Fallout 4 fic.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and please drop a comment with any feedback you have, or even just your opinion. I live for reader response and I strive to grow as an author, especially when I enter a new fandom.


	2. Half Truths are Just Lies in Disguise

**Let’s fly to Anne’s.**

“No we’re taking the bike,” Eddie said exasperated. He slept poorly that night, unable to find a comfortable position and kept them both inside all day. Needless to say, he was nearing the limit of his patience with Venom. 

**Eddie you have wings. We should use them, you should use them.**

He paced the apartment while they argued. The sun was just starting to set, thankfully fall was approaching fast and the days were getting shorter and shorter. Eddie wasn’t going to risk going outside in broad daylight with new appendages he could hardly control. “What part of keeping you and me a secret are you suddenly having issues with? You’ve agreed with every safety measure I’ve proposed up until now, why is this any different?” 

**You have _wings_ Eddie, you can _fly_.**

Eddie groaned and said, “I’m aware of what they are and what they theoretically allow me to do. I’m also aware that I can’t just go flying around San Francisco without drawing huge amounts of attention to myself. We already draw plenty as Venom when we’re not careful.” 

**Fly Eddie. Fly!**

“I understand!” He flared his wings without meaning to and knocked everything off of his table and countertop as he walked passed. “Now look at what you made me do.” Eddie could feel Venom roll eyes he didn’t have and he cut him off before he could say something smart in reply. “I know, I know, you didn’t make me do that, I made me do that. You don’t have to be cheeky.” 

**You’d have better control of them if you used them, like you got used to me.** Venom extended tendrils to help him pick up papers and plastic cups and plates. They had learned a long time ago not to have glassware in the house. Far too much broken glass for their liking.

“I don’t want better control of them, V, I want them gone.” 

**You haven’t even had them for a single day, how do you know you want them gone? You wanted me gone that first day.**

“That’s… not entirely true,” Eddie said and stood up, “and not the same thing. You can’t compare the two, you have a personality and voice, you’re a living thing, these are just… attachments.” He put some papers back down on the table and walked to the other side to retrieve some scattered bits of garbage they allowed to pile up, wrappers, receipts, the odd apple core. Those he placed in the garbage can, where they should have gone in the first place. Eddie glanced at his reflection in a decorative mirror he picked up somewhere for no real reason other than it caught his eye. 

Venom appeared out of the T-shirt he was wearing to say, **We were in your head, Eddie, the whole time, and there were a few moments when you wanted us gone. Just because you accepted things at an accelerated rate doesn’t mean those feelings you first had weren’t true or didn't happen.**

Eddie ran his hand across Venom’s face and said, “I know, I just don’t like thinking back to that time. When I thought of you as an invader, a parasite, as something that needed to be killed. Because you’re not, you know that, right?” 

**Of course, Eddie.** He disappeared back into the fabric of the shirt. A shirt that was custom fit to Eddie’s new wings. It was his idea, he was quite proud of it. **Technically we are a parasite on this planet. Your organs didn’t eat themselves. But I’m… this is nice Eddie is all.** They walked back towards the window and Venom caught Eddie looking outside, like he expected those people to be back, or someone to be standing with a camera ready to expose him. Neither of those things were outside. **I still think you should fly to Anne’s.**

“And I still say no. First off I don’t know how to fly, second I-” Eddie never got to finish his sentence because his body was suddenly pulled out of the window and he found himself falling. “Venom!” 

**No better time to learn than the present!**

“I hate you so much,” Eddie said into the wind that was rushing past his head. He carefully extended his wings out to catch on the air and pull themselves up like before. And, much like before the sudden resistance yanked them back painfully. He had his eyes on the street below for far too long and by the time he looked up he could see his reflection clearly in the window of the building next door. “Oh no, no, no!” He collided with the building just shy of the window. 

**Next time try turning,** Venom chuckled in his head. 

“Ha, ha, laugh it up,” Eddie could feel Venom manifest his foot-claws so they could grip onto the brick without falling. 

**Try again. It won’t be panicked this time. Take a deep breath.**

Eddie did take that breath. He steadied himself and tried not to look down. He leapt from the wall and pushed off with a force that a normal human shouldn’t have. He twisted around so his stomach was facing the street and snapped out his wings again. This time he tipped the left one down a bit and pumped the right down harder. It nearly had the effect that Eddie wanted and he felt himself tip back towards the middle of the street. 

**Open your fingers more,** Venom could feel the confusion radiate off of Eddie. **No, not those fingers, the ones on your wings.**

Eddie tried to follow that order and imagined spreading fingers he didn’t used to have. Immediately he could feel more air move beneath him and they gained a bit of altitude. He heard Venom’s voice in his head again. **Pull your strokes up more quickly and extend your wings forward more during the down-stroke, it will help pull you up.**

Once more Eddie didn’t question the instructions and followed them and once more they had the correct result. “Are you suddenly an expert on flight?” Eddie asked between gasps. Flying was far harder than he thought it would be. 

**Watched a lot of videos on flight last night when you were asleep. But your wings are very different from bird wings, no feathers, little airfoil, you have to use your whole body and play the wind off of your wings more intimately.**

Eddie snorted. “Whatever that means.”

 **Think of it like dancing, you are dancing with the wind.** Venom could hear Eddie laugh. **Oh right, you suck at dancing too.**

There was a sudden gust of wind and Eddie was tossed to the right quite violently. Instinctively he pulled his wings in to protect them but Venom urged him to take them out again. Eddie did and turned his body so that his downbeats would push him to the left. Then he pushed back to the right to even himself out and pulled up so they would go above the rooftops and out of the unruly winds that threatened to smash them against the buildings. 

**You’re learning Eddie.**

“Am I?” He had to question that because to him it seemed like he was running on guesswork. A hope and a prayer. Up above the rooftops it was much easier to work on fanning out his wings and moving each “finger” to see what kind of reaction it had. He practiced pulling his wings through the air at different angles or in different sweeping motions. He found that by dipping one side, combined with a slight tilt of his body, it would change the direction slightly, and a more severe tilt would cause a more dramatic shift in direction. A few times he accidentally stalled in mid air and a moment of panicked free-fall followed. Venom was always quick with calm advice to get him back to flying and not falling.

“Why have you been so adamant on us doing this V? You’ve been near obsessed with it all day. Shit you even did homework.” 

Venom was quiet for a moment, he was enjoying the feeling of moving through air, and while he wasn’t in control of Eddie’s wings he could feel them through his host, they were thin yet strong and unlike anything he had ever experienced before. **I’ve always wanted to fly Eddie, for a long, long time. The Klyntar, we, we don’t have anything we can call our own. Everything we are, everything we will ever be, comes from our hosts. I’ve always looked up at the sky and wanted to be there, but finding a sapient species that can fly is very rare.**

“So what, I just made all your dreams come true or something?” 

There was laughter in Eddie’s head that turned to a purr. **You became even more _perfect_.**

“At least one of us is enjoying this,” Eddie said as his wings caught an updraft and pulled him up and back. “Because if Dan can safely remove these from my body we’re doing it.” 

**But Eddie-**

“No buts, I think this is something I should be able to make a decision about.” 

**I understand. But Eddie,** Venom asked earnestly, **Aren’t you having at least a little bit of fun?**

Eddie rolled his eyes and pumped his wings a bit stronger and went a bit faster. This was a view of the city he had never seen before, even with Venom’s help leaping across rooftops they hadn’t had an experience close to this before. Everything looked so different from this angle, the buildings and streets were familiar strangers. “When we’re not falling or crashing into things it is… pretty enjoyable, I’ll admit.” He could feel Venom’s pleasure. “But,” Eddie added, “I’m not sure these few moments will make giving up a relatively normal human life worth it.” 

**What if we learn to hide them?**

“There’s a lot of “ifs” involved with this V, I don’t know if Dan can even remove them, if they’ll fall off on their own, if I’ll just grow them back… I just wish I knew what was wrong with me.” 

**There’s nothing wrong with you, Eddie.**

“There’s clearly something wrong,” Eddie said. “But thanks for trying.” He tilted into a wide bank and circle. “I can’t tell where we are, everything is so confusing up here, can you see anything?” Venom couldn’t catch any noticeable landmarks. They were in a residential, that was about all he could offer up. They dipped a bit lower, the buildings weren’t so tall here and the drafts were a lot weaker. He chanced going to rooftop level so they could read some street signs. 

**What are you going to say to Anne?** Venom asked. **Do you have a plan?**

Eddie ran his hands through his hair and down his face. “I’m still working on that V. I think I might just try to be as brutally honest as I can. Put everything out in the open. You’re alive, you’ve been alive for the past year or so, I randomly sprouted wings, you know… the essentials.” 

**Are you also going to tell her that we’re involved? Romantically?**

“If it comes up, yeah. I don’t see why I wouldn’t.” 

**What about the mysterious people on the rooftops the other night?** This question was far more serious than their relationship status. **Are you going to tell her about them? That they were trying to hurt us? Kill us maybe?**

“No,” Eddie replied and the answer surprised even himself. “I don’t think Anne needs to worry about me anymore than she probably already will. Besides,” Eddie said and confidently swooped down lower. “We are Venom, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

**Our death Eddie, that’s the worst that could happen.**

“That was a rhetorical question, Love.” 

**So we’re going to tell Anne everything, except we’re not telling Anne everything. Makes sense Eddie.**

“I just don’t want to put her into any danger.” 

**Hmmmm...As I seem to recall, you were the one who wanted her with us when we fought Riot. Now you don’t want her in danger?**

“I had no idea how dangerous that fight was actually going to be,” Eddie countered. “Had I known what we know now about him I never would have suggested it. Anne is strong but… She’s not _us_ V. You know? You were right from the start about that.” 

**I just think it would be best for us to be completely open with our only friends.**

“I have other friends besides Anne and Dan.” 

**Now it is you who is hearing but not listening. I said “Our only friends”, us Eddie, you and I. You might have other friends, but there are only two humans who know of my existence outside of some scientists.** They may be close, but there were still aspects of their lives that were very separated. Such was the nature of his species, without an invasion force he would become the hunted and not the hunter. He had to blend in to survive. But he constantly wanted to challenge that make them both a known figure and not a cryptid talked about in hushed voices and blurry photos online.

“You know we can’t do that Love,” Eddie said while he struggled against another gust of wind. 

**Listening in on me?**

Eddie groaned, “You’re always listening to me and you’re always talking to me. It’s hard _not_ to. Flying around like this is probably going to get us killed.” 

**In that case, why not throw all caution to the wind?**

Eddie said exasperated, “Venom no.” 

**I can feel your fear Eddie. Don’t worry, we won’t do anything that would put us in extreme danger.**

“Just minor danger?” Eddie laughed with Venom and then exclaimed, “Shit! I think that’s Anne’s block!” He pumped his wings hard to clear the rooftops and tried to bank sharply to loop back around. There was a strain on his wings from the sudden change in direction and they crumpled in on his body. “Oh fuck,” Eddie said as he felt himself start to fall. 

**You’re not strong enough for that kind of momentum shift.**

“I noticed!” Eddie said and pushed his sore wings out again to re-catch the air. They caught him and he tried to get back the control he had before. The had dipped back down between the rows of buildings, just barely above the street lights. At least they were pointed the right direction down the street. He tried to bank again to the right to hit Anne’s block. Very narrowly he avoided slamming into the wall of a building and had to push off with his legs to get away.

Eddie over-corrected and the tight space didn’t allow for much recovery time. Anne’s balcony was fast approaching and he tried to pull up and land neatly on the railing. Instead he ended up cupping his wings and furiously pumping them to try to slow his approach. He came in far too fast and his legs hit the railing and he slammed face first into the floor and rolled until he came to a quick stop against the wall. He groaned and tried to sit up as he heard the door open the rest of the way. “Eddie?” Anne’s voice was equal parts surprised and worried. 

“That,” Eddie said with a wince, “was a lot cooler in my head. Oh hey Anne.” 

“Don’t “Oh hey Anne” me. Eddie what are you doing up here? How did you get up here?” 

“I need to talk to Dan, is he here?” He finished sitting up and that’s when he could tell Anne finally spotted his wings. “Something weird happened again and I’d like him to take a look.” 

“Are those,” Anne knelt down beside Eddie, “wings? Eddie did you just fly here and crash into my wall?” 

“They are, and I did.” He searched her face for a reaction and couldn’t find one. She was very good at dealing with bullshit now, he realized. The events with the Life Foundation must have hardened her. “Is it ok if we come in?” 

She didn’t immediately answer, instead she reached out to touch one of the wings. Her fingers could feel the heat from them and the slight rhythmic beats of a pulse. “These are real,” she murmured. Then she asked, “What did you do?” 

“What?” 

“What did you do this time? What dangerous lab did you break into? What crazy experiment did you accidentally become a part of?” 

“I uh-” 

“Well?” 

“We didn’t-I didn’t do any of that. There’s no laboratory, there’s no police after me, and I didn’t break into anything. This isn’t an experiment, it just… happened.” He shrugged and looked up at her. “It just happened Anne.” 

“You expect me to believe that?” 

“Yes,” he said as honestly as he could. 

She stared at him long and hard before standing up and offering him her hand. “You can explain better inside.” 

“Thank you,” Eddie said as he took her hand. He followed her into the living room and stretched out his arms and wings before he folded the wings neatly behind his back. “Is Dan here?” 

“No,” Anne said and shut the door to the balcony. “He won’t be getting in for another hour or so. Long day at the hospital.” She watched him walk around and try to figure out where to sit. Eventually he pulled up a stool and sat down. “So, are you going to explain what happened?” 

**You should tell her everything Eddie.**

“No I’m not going to tell her everything, we went over this.” 

**She’ll figure it out anyways. She’s not dumb.**

“Hey I never said she was dumb.” 

Anne raised an eyebrow. “Eddie.” 

“Besides there’s no point to it, we don’t even know if it’s going to be an issue.” 

“Eddie.” 

**You are being difficult.**

“Oh, I’m being difficult? You tossed me out a window!” 

“Eddie!” His attention snapped back to Anne who had her arms crossed. “Is there something _else_ you’d like to tell me first? Before you explain the wings? I have a feeling they’re connected.” 

“Oh. Yeah…” Eddie trailed off and cleared his throat. “Uh, Venom says “hi”.” 

“Venom says hi.” She shook her head. “When did he come back?” 

“He never left.” 

“So you lied to me about his death.” This wasn’t a question but a statement of fact.

“I…” Eddie hesitated. “I wouldn’t say I lied. Just didn’t give you the whole truth.” He saw Anne was about to get up and he quickly added, “I did it to protect us!” His wings flared out with his arms and hands. “Listen, please. We thought it was best if everyone thought Venom died in the explosion, I mean, even I thought he died for a few hours after. Then when I was alone I could hear… his voice, quiet in the back of my mind. At first I thought it was my imagination. But he survived, he was just really weak.” Venom appeared out of Eddie’s shirt, his head swiveled between looking at Eddie and Anne. “He’s better now, stronger, and I’m ok too. He’s not eating me from the inside, we figured that out. I was going to tell you-” He stopped himself. “No, _that_ would be a lie. I wasn’t going to say anything to either of you.” 

“To protect you?” 

“To protect us.” Eddie looked away. “I understand if you don’t want to help. We put you and Dan in a lot of danger and I didn’t even know it. The risks you two took, I don’t know if I deserve to ask that of you again.” 

Anne took a deep breath and said, “You haven’t explained how the wings happened.” 

“Right.” Eddie said carefully, “Venom and I were climbing up a building, we do that sometimes. He leapt and missed a jump, we were falling and I grew these wings to save us.” 

“You grew them? Not Venom?” 

“Yeah. He says that these aren’t his, the Klyntar don’t have wings.” 

“Klyntar?” 

“His species, that’s what they’re called,” Eddie explained. At Anne's raised eyebrow he said, “Yeah, I just learned that too, it’s not important. So now I have these wings and no idea how they grew in. Humans don’t normally grow wings, right Anne?” 

“No, they don’t. I’ve never heard of something like this.” 

“Right, so Venom says they aren’t his, and they shouldn’t be mine, but I don’t know how they would have happened naturally. Venom suggested we go to Dan, which means going to you by proxy.” 

Anne nodded. “And what would Dan be able to do?” 

“I don’t know, run a test, DNA maybe? Is that something he can do? Do doctors do that?” Eddie got up and started walking around again. “It’s just really stressing me out, and I want answers.” 

“Have you considered that Venom could be lying to you?” Anne asked. “Remember what he is, what his kind wanted to do to our planet.” 

**We’re not lying!** Venom growled deep and low.

“He’s not lying!” Eddie said at the same time. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths to steady the surge of sudden anger he felt flowing in from Venom. “V I’m going to need you to calm down. She doesn’t know you like I do. She doesn’t understand.” 

Anne watched Eddie cautiously as he talked with Venom. She couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation but she did remember back to the time Eddie lashed out at Dan and tried to kill him, she remembered what the Symbiote was like insider her own mind, a voice that sent shivers down her spine even now. She wasn’t sure if Eddie would lash out at her if the alien inside him was angry. She liked to think that he wouldn’t, that he would never hurt her, but Eddie wasn’t himself anymore. He was combined with Venom. And she didn’t know Venom like she knew Eddie.

“Venom is different,” Eddie said, his voice returning to something more normal, more familiar. “He wasn’t like the other Klyntar. The destruction of worlds… taking over a host completely… those things don’t interest him, it’s not what he wants. That’s why we opposed Riot, that’s why I let him back into my body, and why I’m still sharing it now.” 

It was hard for Anne to believe this. She had only been attached to Venom for a short period of time and it took her months to get the feeling to die down, the sensation of never being alone, of never having privacy again. She watched as the alien’s head materialized again from Eddie’s body and shirt, she watched it press its head against Eddie’s and Eddie smile and cup it with his hand. It nuzzled him and wrapped around his neck like a scarf. 

Then she remembered the other feeling she felt from Venom while they were connected, the intense desire to find Eddie and protect him, to save him, like he was the only thing left in the world worth having. At first she thought they were feelings from her own heart, things she refused to examine since their breakup. But after the dust had settled and Eddie came back to them in one piece, she realized that they weren’t her feelings, they were Venom’s. 

“He never meant to eat my insides either,” Eddie added. “That was a mistake, he hadn’t had any proper food since bonding with me and with all the fighting and stress he had no other options. It was either eat my organs or die. He apologized and now we know, so it’s not an issue anymore.” 

“Eddie you realize how crazy this all sounds, right? You have an alien living inside your body, an alien that can eat people and climb up buildings and absorb bullets. An alien that could have possibly caused wings to sprout on your back. And you’re ok with this?” 

“Yes,” Eddie replied honestly. “Yes absolutely. The wings are freaking me out, I’ll admit that, but Venom? He doesn’t. Not anymore, and maybe not ever.” 

“He almost killed you.” 

“Because he was left with no choice!” Eddie shook his head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s in the past. Do you think Dan will help me? Help us?” 

“I think he’s going to scream and possibly pass out,” Anne answered. “But he’s got one of those big, gooey, doctor hearts, so he’ll probably help.” 

**Aww, just like you.**

“V…” 

**Big, dumb, compassionate hearts are your thing too, admit it Eddie.**

He laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right Love.” 

“Hold up,” Anne put her hands up and said, “did you just say love? Did you call him Love?” 

“Since I’m dropping bombshells… Venom and I are dating too.” 

“You’re what? With him?” 

“Is that weird?” Eddie said with a smile, he already knew it was. He looked down at Venom. “Are we weird?” 

**Incredibly so.**

Eddie faked shock. “And you never told me?” He looked back over at Anne who looked more confused than anything else and said, “He makes me happy, happier than I’ve been in a long time, maybe ever.” 

She arched an eyebrow. “Ever? Really?” 

Eddie groaned and said, “Oh come on Anne, don’t make me say… Yes, ever. Listen, he’s given me things no other significant other has. You’re the one who told me to go out and get a boyfriend.” 

“Yeah, a boyfriend, not an alien parasite.” 

**Parasite?**

Anne watched Venom’s head shoot up at the word and his lips pulled back from his teeth. “Is he still sensitive about that word?” 

Eddie laughed, “Very.” He moved to the kitchen and got a glass of water. “Anne I really do apologize for keeping so much from you. We figured the less you knew the better, it was hard, it really was.” 

She followed him into the kitchen and watched as he downed the glass of water and then filled the cup and let Venom drink from it before he finished it off. “It’s like I don’t even know you,” she said. 

Eddie frowned. He turned the glass around in his hand before filling it back up again. “But you do,” he said softly. 

“No, not really.”

“I’m the same guy,” he protested, but without any real fight in his voice. “I really haven’t changed.”

Anne nodded, considered those words, and said, “Then maybe I never really knew you.” 

Eddie looked at the water like it would somehow tell him what to say and how to make this conversation swing back up. The water was silent. But Venom wasn’t. **I would like to talk to her.**

“Hey, Anne?” She looked at him. “V wants to talk to you, do you want to hear him out?” 

She nodded and watched as the ink black tendrils appeared and slipped around Eddie. His mass increased as muscles bulged and his hands became clawed weapons. Eddie’s face was lost as Venom’s covered it, teeth falling into place in double rows. **“We never got a chance to thank you properly for helping me save Eddie’s life. You could have said no, you should have said no. But you didn’t. And because of you Eddie is alive. And maybe even the whole planet. So, thank you.”**

Anne was silent as Venom receded from Eddie, something she had only seen once. It wasn’t any less disturbing. “I’m still mad at you,” she said. “You lied to me, to Dan, and you need to know that.” She walked back into the living room and heard Eddie move to follow her. “You have a problem with doing things without thinking and just expecting to be forgiven.” 

“Anne we thought about this though,” he said.

“And that makes it worse! You’re really expecting me to be ok with this? You think you can just say “I’m sorry” and that makes it all ok? It doesn’t Eddie. Venom isn’t a pet dog you hid in the closet from your mom, it’s a whole being, a potentially dangerous-” Eddie moved to object and she cut him off, “this isn’t something you just hide from close friends. Don’t you trust us?” 

Eddie was silent. He awkwardly sat on the back of the couch, so his feet rested on the cushion. “I..” he didn’t know how to phrase what he wanted to say. “I’m trying Anne.” 

“Try harder.” 

Eddie swallowed. “I’m here, aren’t I? Does that count for something?” 

“Yeah,” Anne agreed, “it means you’re ready to use us again.” 

“How?” Eddie asked perplexed.

“Oh cut the shit Eddie. You don’t have any other friends who are doctors. You’re here now because something happened and you don’t know how to deal with it and you’re using the only resource you have.” 

“I don't think of you two as resources! Even if Dan wasn’t a doctor I’d still be here Annie. I made a mistake in not telling you about Venom and I, you’re right, I should have. I should have trusted you from the start. But I’m here now, trusting you, asking for help. I’m trying to be better, I’m trying to take that step.” 

“The worst part of all this Eddie, is knowing that you would have kept us in the dark if you hadn’t suddenly sprouted wings.” Eddie flinched, even Venom seemed to flinch. She could tell it was saying something to Eddie that she couldn’t hear because his attention was drawn to it. He winced at whatever Venom was saying. She hoped it was chewing him out too. “You’re lucky you have us. Because anyone else would toss you to the curb.” 

“You sorta did that before,” Eddie said.

Anne’s eyes were cold when she said, “And you deserved every straight to voicemail and deleted email. You were a self absorbed prick and there’s a reason we never got back together.” 

Eddie nodded. “No, no, I agree. I hurt you and I’m damn lucky you and Dan continued to talk to me after the whole Life Foundation incident. You could have shut me out again.” 

“Maybe I should have,” Anne muttered. “Anyways, that situation isn’t comparable to this one. You hurt my life and career before, this is just… Eddie I don’t know what this is.” 

“We’re on the same page on that one.” He let himself relax a bit, his wings drooped and touched the floor. “I’m used to the normal abnormalities that come from sharing a body with V, but I’ve always remained me, like a human. And this has me pretty freaked out.” 

“I can tell,” Anne said sat down on a different couch. She turned on the TV and muted it so they could still talk. “You look terrible.” 

“I’m tired,” Eddie admitted. “I couldn’t find a comfortable position to sleep in last night. These damn things,” he lifted his wings ever so slightly, “made that nearly impossible. Then Venom thought it would be a fantastic idea to fly here.” 

“You really can fly?” 

“Not well,” Eddie admitted. “That’s why I crashed into your wall. Foot caught the railing, we came in too fast. Venom wants me to practice, I… I don’t want to practice, I want them removed.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, really.” Even now they weighed heavy on his back. “I can’t go out like this Anne, I can hide V, I can’t hide these. I can only pass them off as a Halloween costume for so long. And I can’t do my job with these big wings hanging off my back. Can you imagine? I wouldn’t be let in a prison with these things and I’d be walked out of every professional setting in a heartbeat.” 

“What if they can’t be removed?”

Eddie pressed his face into his hands and groaned. “I don’t know Anne, I really don’t know.” 

She got up and walked around the couch to Eddie’s back. They were big, that was for sure. “Can I touch them?” 

“Sure,” Eddie replied. 

Gently she lifted one and stretched it out. It was far longer than her couch. The wing was an easy five feet to the “wrist”, and another five feet of length was added to the longest “finger”. But the webbing was rather thin, it looked strong, but it also looked like it could be form fitting. She manipulated the wing so it folded up like an arm. “This doesn’t hurt right?” Eddie shook his head. The elbow of the wing reached just below his butt and she was able to fit the wrist just above his shoulder. “Hey, can you pull the fingers in, like you’re hugging yourself?” 

“Y-Yeah,” Eddie lifted his arm and slipped the wing tips under it and around to his front. “Like this?” 

“Exactly. Stand up.” Eddie did as she instructed and she walked around to the front. “That could work… if you wore thick clothes. I bet you can tuck them in like that, keep them wrapped around your middle.” 

Venom appeared out from the shirt and examined the position they were folded into. **Eddie pull the other one in like that.** Then Venom stopped pretending he was a shirt and morphed into a new outfit that covered the wings. He mimicked a thick shirt and leather coat. **Find a mirror Eddie. Go look.**

Anne watched with a hint of bewilderment. “Venom can be clothes?”

“Yeah, apparently. He thought of it this morning when I was having a panic attack in the shower.” 

“You were having a panic attack?” 

Venom stole Eddie’s voice, forming around his head to say, **”Yes, he couldn’t find a shirt to wear and it tipped him over the edge again. So we became his shirt instead. I think I’d make a good designer line.”**

“Are, are you ok?” 

“Yes,” Eddie said. Then he shook his head and said, “No, but I can’t afford to be not ok right now.” He walked into the bathroom and looked at his reflection. He could still sort of see where his wrist was and the tight folding was already making his wings hurt. But his wings weren’t obvious. “This…” he turned around and looked at his reflection from behind, “might work. It’ll be hot to wear layers all summer but it beats being tossed into a lab and dissected.” 

**I wouldn’t let that happen to us.**

“I know, I know.” He watched as Venom became the fitted shirt again and his wings became visible once more. “You better not do that during anything important,” he said and folded them neatly behind his back. 

“Was that helpful?” Anne asked. 

“Yeah, thanks. If they grow any bigger it might be a problem. They're barely concealed like this... but... the answer seemed so simple, just hug them to my body.” 

Anne said sympathetically, “I’m sure you would have thought of it, but I can tell your brain isn’t working at full capacity.” 

“No, it’s not. I’m not thinking clearly, it feels like everything is moving faster than it is. These past few hours have been a blur.” 

**Between the crying in the shower and crying in your bed it’s felt like ages to me.**

“V, do me a favor and shut the hell up.” He returned to his seat on the back of the couch and watched the TV with halfhearted interest. “We haven’t been on the news have we?” He asked Anne who sat down too. 

“Not that I’ve see, however I haven’t been watching the news closely.” She looked from the screen back to him. “So, I take it the sightings of a big black monster were you?”

“Probably,” Eddie said. “I’ve seen us on a few social media platforms. Blurry photos and videos when we do our nightly rounds.” 

“You know,” Anne said, “I shouldn’t have been so surprised to find out Venom survived. I’d heard the reports too, I just thought… that you’d tell me is all. I guess I should have trusted my gut more.” 

“V says, V says your gut is good to trust. And that you should do it more often. Because you’re smart.” 

“Did it really say that?” 

“Uh huh,” Eddie nodded and kept his eyes on the screen. “V thinks very highly of you, always has. Thinks you’re strong, not in the like, muscle and brute force way but in the way that matters.” 

She glanced over at them and saw Venom’s head poking out from the shirt Eddie was wearing. There was something unnerving about the way it’s opalescent eyes stared at her. “I suppose I should say thank you, so thank you.” Anne caught the creature nod and slip back into Eddie’s body. “What does Venom think about you?” 

“He loves me,” Eddie said. “Thinks I’m an idiot, thinks I take risks that I shouldn’t and thinks I’m too soft. According to him I’m his perfect match, as far as Hosts go, but we’re beyond that, we’re partners. I know that he’ll back me up on most things I do.” 

“So what you’re saying is that he’s a soft, idiot that takes risks too?” 

“Exactly.” 

**That is not true! Tell her that is not true! I am a terrifying Klyntar! I could have enslaved this whole planet! I could have ruled over you and used you like a puppet!**

“And yet you didn’t,” Eddie said with a smile. 

Venom was frustrated at that rebuttal because he couldn’t argue against it. **Your human softness is rubbing off on me. That is all.**

“Uh huh, sure. Keep telling yourself that buddy.” 

Anne spoke up, “It’s very weird to hear you talk to yourself and know you’re not talking to yourself.” 

“I,” Eddie didn’t know what to say. “I suppose it is.” He remembered back to the moment in the car, when Anne was driving him to the hospital. That moment was still fresh in his mind, he didn’t think he’d ever forget the fear in Anne’s eyes. Her reflection in the rear-view mirror was all he needed to know that he was beyond being saved. At that time he had already resigned his fate. He tried to lighten the mood and said, “Sometimes V pretends to be an earpiece so we don’t get too many odd stares on public transport. But mostly we just deal with people looking at me funny.” 

“You’re lucky you live in San Francisco where seeing a man talk to himself on the street is far from the most abnormal thing you’ll see in a day.” Anne had to ask, “How do you deal with it? The lack of privacy? He’s always there right? You said he was always talking to you, and when he was with me he wouldn’t shut up either.” 

Eddie caught that she had slipped back into calling Venom by male pronouns. While Venom didn’t really care one way or the other, he found it comforting that she was talking about him like he was a person. “You know? To be honest? It never bothered me. Maybe I was just so lonely and desperate for a connection that having Venom move in felt like a miracle.” **Loser.** “I don’t know. It feels like a routine now, I’m not sure I could go back to just my own thoughts. Not after being connected for this long.” 

“I don’t think that’s a normal response.” 

“Well,” Eddie shrugged both his arms and wings and said, “I grew wings so I might not be normal after all.” 

“What do you think you are?” She was curious and wanted to know what exactly Eddie thought. To her, he still looked human enough. 

“No idea. An alien maybe? I mean, we know they exist now. What if I’m from some other planet too? Or perhaps I’m from a secret society of winged people? Or… I’m just a freak.” 

“I highly doubt you’re an orphaned alien Eddie, no matter how out of touch your actions might be sometimes. And you probably aren’t from some long lost civilization, I’ve met your father he seemed… normal.” 

“You hesitated.” 

“Yeah because the man hardly spoke and kept staring at me like _I_ was the alien for dating you!” 

Eddie looked away before forcing a laugh. “Yeah he always had the emotional complexity of a rock.” 

“He’s not a rock, he’s a bad father,” Anne said. “Blaming you for something you never had control over.” 

“Hey,” Eddie looked up and asked quietly, “can we not talk about my father now? I’m not in a good head-space and I don’t want to think about him.” 

Venom spoke up, his voice softer in Eddie's head. **You’ve never told me of your parents Eddie. I only just now realized that is strange. What happened?**

“That goes for you too, V.” Eddie shook his head and left the room to get more water. “Dig through my memories if you want to know so bad.” 

**No, I won’t. I’ll hear it from you, when you’re ready.**

Eddie turned the faucet on and watched the water fall into the sink. “Maybe someday I’ll tell you the story of Eddie Brock: The Disappointing Son of a Thousand and One Fuckups.” 

**And your mother?**

“...You see, V, that was fuck up number one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't originally going to end the chapter here, but after looking at my outline and then looking at the page count I decided to cut it here. There was still far too much left for me to write and I didn't want this chapter to end up being a thirty page monster like most of my fics.  
> I also extended the targeted chapter estimate from four to five to account for this. I'll be putting what I cut from from this chapter into it's own chapter so the page counts don't get ridiculous.  
> I have a habit of writing super long chapters if I'm not careful. 
> 
> Anyways, I know not much happened here... like plot wise. They flew to Anne's then had a huge discussion. I always feel bad for dialogue heavy chapters but sometimes I can't help it. However the next chapter will have Dan and some hospital shenanigans. So that's something to look forward to, maybe. And maybe we'll finally figure out what's happened to Eddie, I know he's dying to know.  
> Hope Anne turned out ok... I've never written her, and she doesn't have a lot of movie lines so there's not much to go off of. I really like her though, and she'll play a big role in this story, both her and Dan. They're his support network and he'll need them.
> 
> Not sure when the next update will drop, I have several exams this week and next so I'll be studying for them, I also have to give two large seminar presentations for class so fucking RIP me I guess. I also have to work on my other WIPs, this story dominated my mind and I have a few other stories I have to update. I'm shooting for an update for this fic once a month, maybe every two weeks if I can keep this pace up.  
> As always, comments are welcome, critique is welcome, and feedback is more than welcome. I love knowing what my readers think.
> 
> FANART: http://morphinefangs.tumblr.com/post/179853043526/wings-of-change-by-tien-on-ao3-is-good-just-some


	3. 20 Questions From a Concerned Doctor

Eddie had returned to the living room and sat on the back of the couch to talk with Anne when they heard the door open. Anne looked from Eddie to the entryway and Eddie sucked in a breath. Venom buzzed with an uncertainty Eddie wasn’t used to feeling from him. 

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” they heard Dan say as he walked up the stairs. “You wouldn’t believe how busy the hospital was.” He crested the stairs and entered the room. “Oh! I didn’t know we were having Eddie over, I must have forgotten. Sorry for making… you… wait?” 

“Hey Dan,” Eddie started off, he could already tell the man had spotted his wings. “So I uh, something _weird_ happened to me the other day and I’d like you to check it out.” 

“Anne… Eddie has wings. Are those real?” He was torn between deep curiosity and panic. 

“They’re real,” Anne replied from the chair. She wasn’t sure if she should get up and steady her boyfriend. It hadn’t even been a minute and he already looked faint. 

Eddie swung his legs over the other end of the couch and walked forward a few steps. “We were wondering if you could help me out? Take a look at them? Make sure nothing’s wrong, and maybe figure out why it happened.” 

“We…? You and Anne?” 

Eddie shook his head and started to say, “No, me and-” 

Venom materialized again from Eddies body and Dan let out a yelp. “The uh, Eddie your parasite came back.” He took a few steps back away from him. “Anne did you know this? Does Eddie need help? Do we have to-” He didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence because his next footfall met open air and he started to fall backwards down the stairs.

Eddie lunged forward and Venom shot out to catch Dan before he actually fell. Another tendril locked the door behind them. “V, sweetheart there’s no need to lock the man in his own house.” 

**Don’t want him to run. He needs to help us.**

“Dan are you ok?” 

He was too busy staring at the oozing symbiote body wrapped around him to answer. Dan hardly realized he had fallen at all. “Not going to hurt me, right?” 

It was clear he was remembering the last time he saw Eddie with Venom. “No,” Eddie said quickly and pulled Dan back up to the top of the stairs. Venom’s arm fell away from his own and he steadied Dan with a human hand. “Sorry about last time,” he wanted to smile but he felt it wouldn’t help his situation. “That was a rough night, for all of us.” 

“Anne is this ok? Are we ok with this? What’s happening?” 

Anne moved from her to chair and crossed the room to place a hand on Dan’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s ok. I spoke with the both of them, they’re not here to cause trouble. Well, more trouble.” 

“Sorry we didn’t say anything Dan,” Eddie offered up. “But we didn't exactly leave a great first impression on you. Or second,” he added with a half smile. “And probably a third, considering you almost fell down the stairs.” 

“I was just surprised was all, can’t blame me for that.” He looked at Eddie who, besides the wings, seemed to be in an ok state. “Are you ok? The last time we met that thing was killing you.” 

Eddie nodded and had to mentally calm down Venom who didn’t like being called a thing, or being accused of killing his host. “Yes, I’m fine. We worked those kinks out.” Eddie opened his hand so that Venom could grasp it and give him a reassuring squeeze. “We’re good now. But the actual issue are these,” Eddie flared the wings a bit, they easily filled up the small hallway. “I grew these wings yesterday and neither of us can figure out why.” 

“They’re not the parasite’s?” 

“No,” Eddie said, then added, “and uh, don’t call him a parasite. He finds it offensive.” 

“Right… sorry,” Dan stepped forward and put a slightly trembling hand on a wing. “Well, they certainly feel real. This isn’t an elaborate joke you’re playing on me?” 

“Not a joke,” Eddie replied. “Wish it was a joke. A joke would be better.” They moved into the living room and Eddie had Venom stop being his shirt. Dan looked startled but recovered quickly. Eddie spread the wings out to their full length and moved them a bit. “See, not fake. Definitely not fake.” He turned back around so he could face the two and caught them gasp again. “Are they really that weird?” 

“No, Eddie, your chest!” Dan approached and ran a hand over the rather large and nasty scar that was left over the center of his chest. “When did this happen? Are you ok?” 

“Oh, that, yeah. That happened during the fight with Riot. I was run straight through, took out my heart, a good portion of my lungs, and esophagus. Missed my spinal cord though, I think I _died_ for a few minutes before Venom came back to me and healed me.” 

“Did you get yourself checked out after that? How come you didn’t come to me?” 

Eddie shrugged. “I felt fine, tired as all hell, beat to shit, but fine.” 

“And these?” He moved to the large claw mark scars on his right arm and shoulder. 

“Oh those happened during the Riot fight too. He took a swipe at me when we were Venom. It cut deep, right through him and into me.” Eddie touched the scars on his arm and Venom did too. “We kept the scars as a reminder. That we saved the world, and also that we aren’t invincible. It’s good to remember that we can’t do everything. Venom can get a little… thick skulled.” 

**I am not. Just proud.**

Eddie rolled his eyes and said, “So what do you think? Ever seen anything like this before?” 

“Never in my life, or in any of the years I spent researching the human body.” 

“Not even some obscure mentions? Wasn’t there like, a kid that grew a tail once?” 

“It was a flap of skin near the tailbone, hardly a tail. Eddie this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Dan walked around and grabbed one of the wings and moved it out and in. “You have a full range of motion?” Eddie nodded. “Can you fly? Have you tried?” 

“I can, and have. Not well though,” he added. 

Dan stepped back and observed them from a few feet away, then moved closer again and started to feel where they joined to his back. The skin made a smooth transition between wing and back. The red and black coloration spread across his back, creating a seamless join between the wings. “Would you let me run x rays?” 

“Yeah, yeah I wouldn’t mind that.” 

“I just want to see where the bones line up… I would run an MRI too but you said those loud noises are damaging to the Symbiote. That’s what they were called right? Symbiotes?” 

“That was the name humans gave them, yes.” 

“Could you separate from each other long enough to do it?” Dan watched Venom snake out of Eddie’s body and appear to talk to him. “Would you be ok?” He addressed Venom who turned to look at him with big opalescent eyes. Venom nodded once, but then shook his head and turned back to Eddie. 

“If provided with a correct containment device he could survive being detached from me. He could also survive for a short while outside my body, thirty minutes maximum. However,” Eddie rubbed his arm nervously and toyed with the bands around his wrist. “We can’t separate from each other anymore. We’re permanently bonded.” Technically they could be forced to separate, but the process hurt and Eddie didn’t like the feeling of not having Venom with him. 

“You’re… you permanently bonded with it? Are you sure that’s wise?”

“I don’t know. I love him so… it just felt right to do. Klyntar can make permanent bonds with a host. It means V can’t leave me, I’m his. Unless I die, then he’s free to bail.” 

Dan took a moment to think through what he was told. “The Symbiote is intelligent yes?” 

“Very,” Eddie responded. “Fluent in English, can read and write, talks to me all the time, capable of complex emotions. It’s a person as far as I’m concerned.” 

“Well,” Dan said and shifted the topic, “I want to see what changes these wings have done to your body. Bones, ligaments, muscles, everything. But I won’t be able to run an MRI, and PET scans are too pricey to run for free. I could open you up surgically-” 

“No, our healing factor would get in the way. Surgery isn’t a thing I can do anymore.” 

“Oh, well… hmm… X ray it is then.” Dan seemed to freeze as something came to his mind. “X… Eddie have you ever been screened for the X-Gene?” 

“X-Gene? Isn’t that fiction? There’s no way that’s real.” 

“There have been a few reports of it, mostly on the east coast. To be honest we’re not sure what it does, we just know it’s there. It presents as an extra sex chromosome sometimes, it encodes for protein production, an unknown protein production. And these proteins cause a cascade effect throughout the body. Causing all sorts of changes.” 

“Anything physical?” 

“Yes,” Dan said after a moment's hesitation. “I’m not sure how physical, I’m not sure if _wings_ are something it’s able to do. However…” 

“However?” 

“This gene usually presents itself before puberty, and at your age you should have been screened for it.” 

“I don’t know, maybe I was and don’t remember it?” 

Dan considered that and asked, “What were you doing when the wings appeared?” 

“I was, we were… falling off a building.” 

Dan blinked and shook his head. “I’m not going to bother asking you what you were doing on top of a building. But there’s a chance that the fall triggered the expression of the gene. _If_ that’s what is going on here. It might not be.” 

“Can you do the test? Can you test for that?” 

“I can,” Dan nodded. “I’ll run it along with your blood work, I might do a toxicology screen as well, just to make sure it’s not exposure to something nasty. The X-rays will be back the same day, but the X-Gene screen and blood work will take a few days.” 

“Can we go now?” Eddie asked. He didn’t want to wait, he wanted answers as soon as possible. 

“You’re not dying are you?” Dan asked. Venom shook his head. “Then let's wait until tomorrow. I’ve had a long day, and I want to rest.” 

Eddie was going to protest when Venom said, **You can survive one more night. One more day. Just be patient.**

“You’re right V, I’ll be fine. I’m just… I want to know what’s going on.” 

**We want you to know what’s going on too.**

“You’re not in any pain right?” Dan asked. “I can’t imagine the process was very pleasant.” 

“It wasn’t,” Eddie confirmed. “It felt like… I can’t describe how it felt, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. But,” He spread his wings and gave them a shake, “they saved my life, and V’s so I guess it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.” 

Dan’s eyes lingered on the scars that now coated Eddie’s body. “You should be more careful, less reckless. I don’t want to see you in our morgue.” 

“I don’t want to be there, either.” Eddie thought about a shirt and Venom molded himself into one. “These things just… seem to, I don’t know, happen? These things seem to just happen to me.” He walked around to the side of the couch and flopped down on it. Immediately he groaned as limbs pressed up against his body in awkward angles. He tried and failed to fit comfortably on the couch before giving up and moving to the kitchen table. Eddie slouched forward and put his head in his arms. He looked up and said, “Can I crash here tonight? Or do you want me to go home? I can go home if you need me to.” 

Dan said, “I didn’t see your bike outside, how did you get here?” 

“Flew,” Eddie replied. 

“Oh. I should have guessed.” 

“He crashed into our balcony,” Anne said, “very uncoordinated.” 

“It was only my second time flying, give me a break.” Venom chuckled in his head. “You give me a break too, V. And no more tossing me out windows.” 

“It tossed you out a window?” Dan looked shocked. “Doesn’t it care about your well-being?” 

“Of course he cares,” Eddie said. “Doesn’t stop him from being an asshole.” He laughed quietly when Venom protested in his mind. “Denial isn’t just a river in Africa, Love.” He turned his attention back to Dan and Anne. “So should I meet you two in the morning or…?” 

Dan looked to Anne who just shrugged. “You can stay here,” she said. “It’s not like you haven’t crashed on our couch before.” 

Eddie closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t feel like flying back home after the trip here. It took a lot out of him and he was still scared of heights. 

**You should not be afraid. You have nothing to fear now. These wings will save us from falling to our deaths.**

Eddie ignored Venom and said, “Thanks.” He was being earnest. “Thank you, really. For agreeing to help, for letting me spend the night, for not… throwing me out, or screaming, or calling the cops.” 

“Eddie,” Dan said and moved to sit in the chair next to him, “you’re our friend. We’ll do everything we can to help you, you know that.” 

Anne said, “Don’t go making promises you don’t know if you can keep.” 

“I know you and Eddie have a history-” 

“History? It’s a little more than that!” 

“I know. But I’m a doctor Anne, I didn’t spend years of my life going to medical school to not help people who need it. Eddie clearly needs help.” 

“Please,” Eddie said, “don’t fight, not over this, not over me. Thank you Dan, for agreeing to help out. I’ll pay you back whenever I can.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Dan said. “These tests will be run under the radar, I don’t think you want this type of information getting out, do you?” Eddie shook his head. “Didn’t think so. Everything relating to you, or to the Symbiote will be kept a secret between us and us alone. I’ll make sure of that.” 

“Thanks again, you could probably lose your job over this.” 

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I would get in trouble. And you’d be thrust out into the open. Who knows what kind of people would be jumping at a chance to get at you.” 

“Yeah,” Eddie said and flared his wings a bit, “who knows?” But he did know. There was already a group after him, after them. The people on the rooftops, they had to have been following them for a while, watching their routes, patterns, they knew what rooftops they would be crossing. Whoever they were didn’t strike his apartment, but that thought wasn’t enough comfort to Eddie. 

**If they know our routes they know where we live,** Venom agreed. **We should move again. Maybe across town.**

“Don’t have the money for that,” Eddie mumbled. 

**Then make more money.**

“Not that simple.” 

“Are you in financial trouble? Eddie I told you the tests are free.” 

Eddie looked up at Dan and said with a half smile, “No, no. I mean, yes, when am I ever not in financial trouble?” He forced a laugh and said, “I’m good, this was something else. Not related.” **Hungry.** “We just ate V, before we came over.” **Hungry. Flying takes energy. We’re hungry.** Eddie’s mind went straight to the other day when he ate that poor unsuspecting man walking down the street. Venom sensed his fear and unease and added, **Not that hungry! We will not eat Dan, or Anne. You have our word.**

Anne watched his face drop and his complexion go pale. She knew he was having a conversation with Venom. “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah,” he said weakly, “yeah no I’m fine. What should we do for dinner? I was thinking Chinese? You ok with takeout? I’ll buy.” 

“Yeah,” Dan said, “there’s a great place that delivers not too far from here. I’ll grab the menu.” 

When Dan left Anne said, “I know there’s something else you aren’t telling us Eddie.” He looked up and flinched. That was all she needed to know she was right. “And maybe you have your reasons, maybe it’s none of our business, and maybe we shouldn’t know. But don’t think that you’re good at hiding things. You’ve always been terrible.” 

**You are an astonishingly bad liar.**

“V…” Eddie sighed and said, “You’re right. There is something. But the thing is, I don’t know if this thing is a thing or not. It could be nothing. And I won’t make a big deal out of nothing. These wings? Way more pressing. What V and I argue or talk about? Not as important.” 

“You tell us if something big happens to you again. From here on out, you tell us.” 

“I… Yeah. Yes. I will.” He didn’t promise, he was bad at keeping promises he learned. But he wanted to get better. There was a person he used to be, and he wanted to find that person. 

Dan placed their order and refused to let Eddie pay after hearing the total. “Are you really going to eat all that?” 

“I can, and I will.” 

Dan eyed him up. “Your metabolism must have spiked. Do you normally eat that much?” 

Eddie shrugged. “Sometimes less sometimes more. Depends on the day.” 

“You haven’t gained any weight from what I can tell. Haven’t lost any either. I’m guessing you’re eating for the Symbiote too?” 

Venom snaked out of Eddie’s shoulder to nod. “He would like you to call him Venom, and not the Symbiote. He has a name. And yeah, I’m eating to cover his energy use and my own. It’s quite a jump from what I’m used to. Flying also uses far more energy than I’m used to. We’ve only gone out twice and both times I’ve been left with a ravenous appetite after.”

“I would imagine so,” Dan said and took the seat next to Eddie. He placed his hands on a wing, still enamored by them. Eddie let him manipulate the joints, move and bend the wing around. “Can you become not a shirt again?” Venom complied and vanished from around Eddie and instead stuck his head around the wings to observe Dan. He pulled one wing up and told Eddie to hold it while he ran his hands around his side. He felt something odd, but expected. “Hey face me.” 

Eddie turned to Dan and asked, “Something wrong?” 

He shook his head. “No, you’re fine. I think. Look, there’s a second strip of what looks like pectoral muscle coming in. You can follow it back to the wing joins. And then look,” he pressed down on Eddie’s sides and followed them back up and around the wings. “Your trapezius muscles are way thicker than average, especially considering your level of fitness.” 

“I workout,” Eddie protested. “Lift weights and stuff.” 

“The muscles along your neck are thicker too, it looks like everything is being reinforced. Probably to move and pump these wings during flight.” Dan worked his fingers between the wings. He felt along his spine and spread his fingers over his shoulders. “Incredible, I wish I knew how else you were changing.” 

Eddie couldn’t be mad or annoyed, Dan was a doctor and he was currently an oddity. “Glad someone’s enjoying this.” 

“Can you flex your wings for me? Move them around, like up and down and back and forth?” 

Eddie stretched them out as far as they could go without knocking more things over. He lifted them up towards the ceiling, it was liking stretching his arms in the morning, it felt good. Dan’s hands stayed on his back as he moved his wings up and down and then rolled them forward over the table and pulled them straight back. 

“Incredible,” Dan mumbled. “They’re real, they’re really real. And you can fly?” 

“Yes,” Eddie said again. “They would be pretty useless wings if I couldn’t fly with them.” 

“I wonder how that works? You should be too heavy for flight, especially with membranous wings. They’re what, twenty feet in span?” 

“I have no idea,” Eddie replied and continued to roll them like he would his shoulders. “I haven’t measured them.” 

“The proportions are technically correct for someone of your size, if they were feathered. These don’t produce the same amount of airfoil right?” 

“Now you sound like V,” Eddie said. “Do you want a demonstration? You sound like you want a demonstration.” 

“You would do that?” 

“Sure, why not? It’s night and many people don’t ever look up.” He stood and stretched. His stomach rumbled but food was on the way. “This building has roof access right?” Dan nodded. “Cool, lead the way.” 

**Use the window.**

“No, we are not using the window. I’m tired of you tossing me out of those.” Venom grumbled and Eddie said, “We can use the stairs everybody else.” 

**But we are not like everyone else! That is why should do things like jump out of windows and scale buildings with our claws.**

“I know we’re not like everyone else, Love, but sometimes a guy just wants to take the stairs.” 

Dan snorted, “Do you have any idea how many people I see that refuse to take the stairs ever?” 

“I bet it’s a lot, but I don’t think those same people would be thrilled if their alternative was to get pulled out of a fifth story window.” 

“Probably not,” he agreed. 

Once on the roof Eddie spread his wings out to their full length. Judging by the looks he got from Anne and Dan they must be impressive. He started off towards the edge at a run. By counting his paces he was able to step up on the edge with one foot and leap with the next stride. Eddie dove off of the rooftop and spread his wings after he dropped and picked up some speed. This time they didn’t jerk him back, he flared them out slowly and eased out of the dive. When his upward momentum was halting he gave his wings two strong down beats and rose up over the buildings. 

**You’re getting better.**

“I learned a few things from the last time,” Eddie said. With a few strong pumps of his wings he was high above the buildings and tilted his body to the right to slide into a wide bank. Turning was still something he wasn’t used to. He couldn’t figure out how to adjust the tilt and speed of his wings while in a turn. He wasn’t sure which one to beat faster or which fingers to extend or curve to get the desired result. Eddie thought it would be like swimming, but it was probably closer to using a rudder. 

**Rudder… A tail would work for that.**

“Do _not_ grow me any more appendages!” Eddie shouted into the wind. 

**I keep telling you that we did not grow the wings, you did!**

“And I keep telling you that humans do not grow wings!” Eddie sighed and angled his turn sharper so they could head back towards the building Anne and Dan were on. This time he was prepared and his wings didn’t fold or crumple under the turn. He was approaching his friends and cupped his wings to slow down then angled them down into a dive. Eddie pulled them in closer to his sides and felt the wind rush by. Then he pushed them out again and glided over their heads. He was close enough that his wing tips almost touched the ground. After he passed by the roof he pushed down and gained more altitude.

He did a few more circles above the building and dove down to get closer to his friends a couple more times before he finally flew away from the building and turned around to prepare to land. Each time he had attempted a landing previously had ended in failure, but he was determined to get it right this time. He gave himself ample time to approach the rooftop as he drifted lower and lower in the sky. He cupped his wings and pulled his body up vertically and beat his wings to slow the descent. Eddie landed hard on the roof and stumbled forward with a few awkward steps. He flared his wings and flung his arms out to balance and catch himself. 

“Eddie that was amazing!” Dan said as he jogged over. “They really are capable of flight. That’s… it’s incredible.” 

“I don’t know if I’d say it’s incredible,” Eddie said.

Anne came up to them and said, “For once you’re not gloating or absorbing the praise? Are you sick Eddie? Do you have a fever?” She smiled. “They are incredible. Watching you up there, it was like I was watching something else.” 

Eddie could feel his mouth curve into a frown. “Something else?” He said quietly.

“Oh,” Anne quickly tried to backpedal. “You know what I meant… Eddie I don’t think you’re some mutant freak-” 

“But what if I am?” Eddie asked. “What if I _do_ have that mutant gene or whatever? What if I’m not human? Oh god Anne… what if we… what if I had fathered a child? I could have passed this on, oh no.” 

They watched him fold in on himself and Anne took a few steps forward to place a hand on his shoulder. “Eddie stop it, stop this. You’re not a monster, or a mutant freak, and one gene does not a monster make.” 

“I’m different though,” he mumbled. 

“We’re all different. Eddie you’re working yourself up over nothing.” 

“Nothing? How can you say this is nothing?” 

“Because we don’t know what it is. You might be fine, Eddie. Maybe this is all because of your bond with Venom?” 

Eddie asked Venom, “Could it be?” 

**Never heard of something like this. Not saying it’s impossible, but improbable. Might be your genes, maybe Dan is right.**

“But it could be?” 

**Yes. I suppose it could be. Doubtful though.** Venom snaked out of Eddie and said, **I am me and you are you.**

“I thought you were going to say “you are mine” there for a second.” 

Venom sent a wave of amusement through Eddie. **Those possessive days are long past. Already know who you belong to. And who I belong to.**

“You better,” Eddie said. “I don’t want to have committed to you only to have you run off when things get tough.” 

**Cannot run Eddie. Not from you. Impossible.**

“Permanent bond?” Venom sent mental confirmation. “Alright. You’re happy though?” 

A bit of annoyance filtered through Eddie that was replaced by sincerity when Venom said, **Of course. Of course I’m happy.**

“Just making sure.” 

Anne opened the door to the apartment and said, “Is Eddie fishing for reassurance Venom?” 

A head appeared between Eddie’s wings as they stepped inside. Venom nodded and borrowed Eddie’s voice to say, **”He is. Does he do this often? Is it a habit?”**

Anne chuckled. “He’s insecure in love. Thinks it’s going to fall down around him at any moment. It would be cute if it wasn’t so overbearing sometimes.”

“I am not,” Eddie protested without any real heart. It was true though. He had never been all that confident, never was sure why. 

**You’re thinking about your father again, your family.**

“Shh, no, get out of there.” 

Dan and Anne looked puzzled but didn’t comment. They both knew they’d have to get used to hearing Eddie talk to himself. “How did you manage?” Dan asked. When Eddie cocked an eyebrow he elaborated. “It sounds like Venom talks to you all the time. How did you manage not to respond around us? We would have noticed and you do it frequently.” 

“Oh,” Eddie rubbed the back of his head. “I uh, I just asked him to remain quiet. A lot. And sometimes I did speak to him, but not with my voice.” 

“With your mind?” He asked.

Eddie shook his head. “No, not with a voice, even in my head. But with emotions, pictures, memories. A type of communication I imagine is completely unique to us.” 

Anne said, “That’s a safe bet. I’m not sure there’s anything quite like you on this planet.” 

“Unless one of the other Klyntar survived,” Eddie said. “We were told they all died in the lab, but with all the lies we were fed at the start… who knows really?” 

“Well,” Anne countered, “you lied right back to them about Venom. You said he also died protecting you from the combustion from the rocket and the fall into the bay.” 

Dan questioned Venom, “Would you be able to feel them? Other Klyntar?” 

Venom nodded and stole Eddie’s voice to say, **“Yes. Klyntar have the ability to sense each other on a basic level. However Klyntar can sense their spawn, and those they spawned from far more accurately. I am not sure why though, we do not hold familial relations like you humans.”**

“But you reproduce?” Dan asked.

**“Yes of course. We are a unique species. Family lines can be traced down, each Klyntar spawns once or twice before death. Single parentage, no mixing of genes unless it's absolutely necessary. This is to keep lines pure. If there is a defect in a certain line that arises it is easy to cull everyone that way. One parent, one or two descendants. An easy line to trace back and eradicate.”**

“Cull?” Anne said with a frown. 

**“Yes. In the rare occasion that a line exhibits… attributes… that stray from the Klyntar standards that line is culled. Every member is eradicated from youngest to oldest surviving. That way the defective attributes can no longer be passed down.”**

“Has that happened?” Dan asked. Venom nodded. “To anyone you know?” 

There was hesitation in Venom. His eyes narrowed as he debated his answer. Eddie had given these two personal information about himself, they were trustworthy humans. He nodded. **“To me.”**

“What?” They were both shocked. 

**“Before I was selected to go on Riot’s scouting mission I, and my entire line, were on the culling block.”**

“What for?” Dan couldn’t help but ask. “I don’t know anything about your physiology but you seem strong.” 

**“It was not… that kind of negative attribute. Not one physical weakness, but mental, a difference in character.”** Venom tried to explain the best he could. 

Anne had to ask, “Who’s character?”

**“Mine.”** “I was the deviant. And my entire lineage was one council meeting away from execution.”

“Why wasn’t it?” 

Eddie responded instead. “The scouting mission was Venom’s chance at redemption. If he could prove that he wasn’t an aberration they would let his line survive.” 

**“I failed,”** he said with a hint of a smile pulling up his lips to reveal razor sharp teeth. 

“And your difference in character?” Anne asked. 

**“Desiring peace, refusing to consume a host, wanting a symbiosis, a bond.”**

“That’s it?” Dan seemed surprised. “They’d kill an entire history of their kind over that?” 

**“Yes. They would.”** Venom looked away and said, **“We are not going to explain to you the intricacies of Klyntar culture. But we are a waring race. We consume, slaughter, and move on. To desire peace would be detrimental to the whole if those desires were passed down. So those thoughts are culled out of the population.”**

“It’s why he was eating me, when we first met. His goal was to ride me into the ground, jump ship when I couldn’t survive and find a new host. But he changed his mind and started to reverse the damage when we rebonded.”

**“I was also starving Eddie. You nearly starved me.”**

“So you ate my heart?” Eddie shook his head. “You really weren’t good at this.” There was a bit of nervous laughter that rippled through the room. Eddie took a seat at the kitchen table again and let his wings droop to the floor.

“Venom,” Anne said, “I have to ask. Did your line get destroyed?” 

**“We don’t know. I left the current home-planet years ago. They’re probably all still in limbo. They’ll let them live until a report comes back that states if I passed, failed, or died. But the other Klyntar on the seeding meteor, they have no idea where we were taken. We were effectively kidnapped by you humans.”**

Eddie rested his chin on his hand and said, “We always tell stories about aliens abducting us from our beds or out in fields. Never thought we’d be the ones to abduct the aliens. Funny world huh?” 

**Hilarious.**

 

“Oh come on, it ended up good for you.” Venom and Eddie pressed their heads together as Venom agreed mentally. “I think you were lucky that you were taken here.” 

**Just glad it was me who found you and not Riot or the others.**

“Oh yeah, that would have been bad right?” 

**Undoubtedly.**

Eddie nodded. “You know… you know I was ok with it? Right? You know that?” 

**Not the time Eddie. But yes, I was aware.**

“Hey,” Dan cut in, “I know you’re probably talking about something important, but do you mind maybe including us? Can’t participate if we only hear half the conversation.” 

“Oh, oh yeah sorry. Sorry Dan. I won’t…” Eddie stopped himself before he made another promise he couldn’t keep. “I’ll try not to.” 

“What does he say to you?” Anne asked as she helped Dan set the table. “What do you talk about?” 

“Eh,” Eddie waved non committedly with his free hand and said, “nothing special. Usually the random comments about what’s going on. Sometimes he’s a smartass, sometimes it’s observations, things I missed. We talk about whatever is on our minds. Not sure what you were looking for.” He laughed a bit and said, “If you were expecting something like, I don’t know, master evil plans, or who’s head we’re going to eat next or something I hate to disappoint.” 

Both Anne and Dan exchanged a glance before Dan asked, “You don’t eat people do you? Those were just exaggerated stories right?” 

Eddie didn’t lift his head from his hand and said, “Take out is way better.” 

“Oh god,” Dan covered his mouth. “Do you have any idea how unhealthy that is? You know what? I don’t want to know if you’re joking or not.” Venom appeared and flashed his teeth with a smile. 

“V don’t fuck with the guy. We won’t eat you Dan. But I am starving, when was dinner going to arrive?” 

Almost on cue there was a knock on the door. Anne hissed, “I’ll get it, Eddie stay out of sight.” 

“Like you have to tell me,” he said and remained seated. There was a staircase and a wall between him and the door. No way he’d be spotted. 

“Uh, Eddie?” 

“Yeah Dan?” 

“You’re drooling something fierce.” 

\---

It was nearly three in the morning when Dan woke up with a dry throat and a craving for water. He climbed out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. There were voices coming from the other room. Or, as he listened harder, one voice. Eddies. 

“I don’t know V, what if this is a bad idea? Yeah, yeah, I wish you’d stop calling me that. Listen, just… no, no, I trust Dan, and I trust Anne. I’m just- Yeah that’s it exactly. Hey! Don’t laugh! Like you’ve never been scared in your life. Don’t lie to me, you know I can see into your head too, this is a two way street Love.” 

Dan filled his glass with water from the fridge and stepped quietly into the dark living room. He could see Eddie sitting uncomfortably on the couch. One wing was sprawled across the floor while the other was pushed up against the back of the couch, it stuck up in the air awkwardly. “Hey, you uh, you ok Eddie?” 

He looked up at him, almost startled. “Oh? What? No, no I’m fine Dan.” 

“I just heard you talking to yourself, wanted to make sure you’re ok.” 

Eddie shook his head. “No,” he replied, “not talking to myself, talking to Venom. Did we wake you?” 

“No, you didn’t.” He held up his glass of water. “I was thirsty. Got a drink.” 

“You know?” Eddie said quietly, “The day before I ruined everything between Anne and I, I also got up to get a midnight drink.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, saw her computer on the table. Knew her password, knew who she worked for, couldn’t stop myself. I’d like to say I could blame it on being tired, but that’s not true. I’ve tossed away my journalistic integrity before, I guess it wasn’t much of a surprise to those who knew me.” 

“Anne told me you got run out of New York.” 

Eddie avoided Dan’s eyes. “Something like that.” 

He sat down on the chair next to Eddie. “Can we talk?” 

“Is that not what we’re doing?” Eddie asked. His eyes followed Dan through the shadows. “Sure yeah go ahead. Can’t sleep anyways, too… nervous?” There was a pause as Eddie's attention seemed to be snapped to somewhere else. “I know you could do it, but I don’t want you to.” 

Dan tried to pull his attention back. “What are you nervous about?” 

“Having second thoughts about… figuring this all out.” 

“Why?” Dan took another drink of water. “It must be eating you alive not to know what happened to you.” 

“Yeah but,” Dan watched him lift the wing on the ground in what could be a shrug. “I don’t know. I’m scared, I guess. Scared of finding out there’s something really, really, wrong with me. Scared of something happening at the hospital, of someone seeing me like this.” 

“Wouldn’t Venom know if there was something really wrong with you?” 

“I thought that too, but he doesn’t know what caused the wings, so we’re beginning to realize that he maybe doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does.” Dan caught Eddie’s mouth twitch in what was probably going to be a reply to unspoken words. “I was thinking maybe it would be best to just not know.” 

“Burying the truth doesn’t make it go away. You of all people should know that.” 

Eddie nodded and stared at his folded hands. He fiddled with one of the many bracelets he wore around his left wrist. “What did you want to talk about?” 

“You, actually. You and Venom.” 

Eddie sat up a bit straighter and swore as he tried to make wings fit into places they couldn't. He gave up and let the other one press up against the back of the couch again. “Ok, what do you want to ask? We’re an open book.” He swatted at a black tendril that popped up. “Hush you, we’re an open book to Dan… ok no, not that. Of course he doesn’t need to know that, but he wouldn’t ask that anyways.” 

Dan waited for Eddie to stop talking before he asked, “I’m just curious about how this all works. I studied a little bit of parasitology back in school, but of course, none of the parasites on Earth are like Venom. You’re two separate complex organisms sharing a body, that’s… frankly it's incredible.” 

“It was annoying,” Eddie said with a smile. “At first. We clashed a lot those first few weeks. A lot of arguing, then a lot of making up, compromise. We figured it out.” Eddie listened to Venom and then spoke, “We wanted to figure it out. I don’t need Venom to live, but he needs me, of course, he could have just ditched me and tried his luck with someone else but… we kind of liked being together. I did, at least. It was… comforting.” 

“Comforting how?” 

A tendril rose out of Eddie’s chest and he let it wrap around his finger and hands while he said, “I got really lonely, after the break up. I was a mess. So much so that jumping in that lobster tank? I honestly thought I was just having a mental break. Hearing voices, having sudden impulses, it seemed to me like I had finally snapped. Point is, I buried so much shit that there wasn’t any more room for shit to get stored. Then I learned about V, he always said I adapted far too quickly to him, but the truth is… the truth is I was just ready for someone else to take the lead in my life. I didn’t care where I ended up, I just didn’t want to have to think.” 

“That doesn’t sound… healthy, Eddie. Have you ever spoken to anyone about this?” 

Venom’s head appeared and Dan had to suppress a yelp. The creature pressed its forehead against Eddies. “Yeah,” Eddie said and cupped Venom’s face, “yeah I talked to Venom about it, actually. After dealing with Riot he asked if he could stay, with me. Actually asked, said he would respect my choice if I said no. But fuck, we saved the planet together, I couldn’t turn him away. It turns out this goo alien was just what I needed.” Venom’s head disappeared back into Eddie’s body but there were still black tendrils wrapped around his hand. Eddie gave it a squeeze. “We talked a lot about the future, what being a good host would mean, and how to be a good partner for me. Set up boundaries, rules, that sort of thing. Before either of us really knew it we had gotten so used to being together that we don’t think we could be anything else.” 

“You mentioned a permanent bond? What does that mean?” 

Eddie was clearly trying to come up with an answer that he could explain. “It was a… promise? Between myself and Venom. When I agreed it changed something about Venom. See, Klyntar are normally free to move from host to host. But if one spends a significant time with a single host sometimes the bond becomes permanent. Klyntar can also induce this affect earlier if they want, and if the host consents.” 

“So that means?” 

“It means Venom can’t pick another human host but me. He’s altered himself in such a way where I’m the only one he can survive in. He can’t leave me of his own will. We’re in perfect symbiosis.” 

“Don’t you think that was a little fast?” Dan asked. “I mean you two have known each other for less time than Anne and I have know each other.” 

Eddie chuckled. “When you have a person in your mind and body twenty four/seven come talk to me. We both got so used to each other, he saved me from myself. There’s no one else I’d rather be with. I can say that confidently.” 

“Why would the symbiotes-” 

“Klyntar.” 

“Why would the Klyntar have a function like this? From what you’ve told me they conquered planets, use up hosts and leave. Why would they want to bond permanently?” 

Eddie was quiet and nodded every few moments. “Venom says he doesn’t know,” Eddie said finally. “Perhaps as a measure to keep strong hosts hostage. Most Klyntar never bother doing a permanent bond, it’s not knowledge that is spread around.” 

“And Venom knows of it because?” 

There was a smile on Eddie’s face, “Because he’s different. He’s not like the other Klyntar, that’s why he was on the culling block.” Venom appeared again to nuzzle him. “This, what we have, this is why they wanted him dead. This is why Riot was intent on killing us. Venom went and did exactly what he was on watch for.” 

“So, it’s love?” 

“Yes, definitely.”

Dan had a lot of questions but he didn’t want to overwhelm them too much. “What does it feel like?” 

“To have something inside me?” Eddie smirked. “It’s weird, to have an alien in your head, it’s like… Did you ever hear voices Dan?” 

“No? No never.” 

“Oh, well… It’s like you have intrusive thoughts but they’re not yours. They’re another person’s who wants tater tots or human heads, like every few hours.” He pushed Venom’s head back when he bared his teeth and probably hissed something only Eddie could hear. “I don’t feel him, like in my muscles or anything. I don’t feel anything, I’m just hungry all the time.” 

“How much do you eat?” 

“A lot? Like I said it varies with the day. Sometimes it’s a lot and sometimes it’s less.” 

“Do you, have you really,” Dan looked away. 

“What?” Eddie asked and leaned back. “Eaten people? Yes.” 

Dan shook his head. “I thought so. Anne she… she mentioned something about that when she was…” 

“She told you?” He asked. “Interesting.”

“Why’s that?” 

Eddie shrugged. “She told me to keep that between us. She didn’t want you to know. Thought it might make you worry.” 

“She was really messed up after it. Kept having nightmares, breakdowns, she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong for a while. Finally she told me the full story, I didn’t blame her, she did what she thought she had to do to save you.” 

Venom headbutted Eddie gently and then using his voice said, **“Anne was very brave, doing what she did. She allowed us to save Eddie. We apologize for the harm we caused her. Not everyone is suitable to be our host.”**

Eddie added, “Yeah I got super lucky, I was a perfect match for him and we get along great, I can handle things we do.” 

“You can?” Dan asked.

Just for a second he saw Eddie’s smile falter. “Yeah, I can. We’re cool.” Eddie hesitated before asking softly, “Anne’s ok though, right? She’s ok?” 

Venom reappeared and looked intently at Dan. “Yes,” he said finally. “She’s much better now. Not as panicked, less nightmares. However I don’t think knowing you survived, Venom, is doing her any favors. I think that part of the reason she was ok was because she believed you dead.” 

Venom nodded solemnly. Eddie said, “We would have kept ourselves a secret for longer, for forever if we had a chance. We didn’t want to bother you two, worry you. But growing wings put a stop to that plan.” 

“Do those wings feel ok?” 

Eddie shrugged the wing on the floor again. “They’re fine. A lot less sore now. I’m getting used to moving them, folding them, that kind of thing. No doubt I’ll still knock things off of tables for a while to come. Even my flying has improved in the few short times I’ve used them for that. It’s like having two new arms, the joints are so similar.” 

“They should be. Wings and arms are the same limbs, they just developed differently.” Dan smiled sympathetically at Eddie. “You don’t look very comfortable.” 

“Ha.” Eddie adjusted the pillow he stuffed behind him. “That’s been the story of my life for the past day or so. Last night was rough, nothing felt right, couldn’t sleep, kept hitting my wings on something.” He dragged a hand down his face, pulling at his bottom eyelids. “I suppose that isn’t going to stop happening anytime soon, the discomfort. I’m ok walking around, it’s sitting on things with backs that present all my troubles.” 

“You can lay across the backseat of the car if you want, tomorrow. If you fold your wings against your back we can toss a blanket over you. Should shield you from any curious eyes, and you’ll probably be more comfortable.” 

“That could work, yeah. I was also thinking i could just sit in the middle and tuck them against my chest.” 

“Whatever you want to do,” Dan wanted Eddie to be comfortable, both because he didn’t like people in pain but also because he wasn’t sure if Venom was still as violent as he was when they first met. Agitation seemed to make the parasitic alien more on edge, and he didn’t want that.

When Dan brought his attention back to Eddie the other man’s eyes were unfocused. “No. No we cannot do that.” There was a pause. “Because if we fly in we’ll most certainly get noticed.” Another pause, this one with a sigh and a groan. “The roof of the hospital isn’t without cameras or people. It’ll be strange if we’re seen coming in from the roof access, and it’ll just be easier if we enter the damn hospital with a doctor.” Eddie waved a hand. “Oh boo hoo it’ll take ten extra minutes, deal with it.” He watched Eddie smirk before saying, “Sure, we can stop for doughnuts and hot chocolate if Anne and Dan say so.” 

“I take it Venom doesn’t want to take a car?” 

“He doesn’t like them. Too confined, too slow, can’t sense our surroundings as well.” 

“Does he enhance any of your senses?”

“Smell,” Eddie replied without hesitation. “I can smell a lot better. Taste too, they’re connected. I think my vision is a little better, crisper, and I haven’t noticed any hearing improvements.” . 

“Interesting. I wonder why just taste and smell were touched. Perhaps it's because those are the weaker of the senses on humans compared to other animals?” Eddie didn’t offer up a reason and Dan didn’t press for one. He stood up and finished the water he had gotten. “It’s late, I should probably go back to bed.” He carefully stepped over the outstretched wing on the floor to put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “You should try to get some sleep. I know you’re nervous. We’ll… we’ll figure this out Eddie, I promise.” 

“Yeah…” Eddie trailed off and his eyes focused on wing positioned awkwardly against the couch back. Venom’s head appeared out of Eddie and gently bumped his host’s head before nuzzling his throat. 

Dan decided to leave them, it was clear Eddie had some anxieties, but he wasn’t sure if he could help him. Perhaps that was a job for the one who lived in his mind and shared his body? Such a strange concept, Dan thought as he walked back to their bedroom. He wasn’t sure he could imagine how it would feel to have another thinking, living being inside his body and head. When he paused just outside the door he could barely hear Eddie’s hushed voice talking. The man was certainly something else, Dan didn’t envy him.

\---

The ride to the hospital was uneventful. Eddie didn’t end up laying down in the back, but sat upright in the middle seat. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and had his wings tucked in against his back and chest. They ached to be stretched but he couldn’t allow them to, not in a car, and certainly not within eyesight of normal people. 

Venom kept sending him images of calming things, ocean waves, swaying trees, wind moving through a field of grass, the sound of steady, consistent keystrokes, things he assumed Eddie found comfort in. The increased heart rate was obvious, he could tell Eddie was getting more and more worked up as they got closer and closer to the hospital. Venom didn’t want him to be a shaking, panicky mess when they walked in the doors. Hospitals already unnerved him, no need to make it worse.

“I’m sorry for having a bit of fear, I’m trying ok?” 

Both Dan and Anne glanced in the rear-view mirror at Eddie’s words but it was Venom who responded, **We know. We just need you to try harder.** Eddie winced at the words and Venom tried again, **You’re doing fine. We didn’t mean… Perhaps I’m nervous as well. We just can’t walk in a mess.**

“Why not? Other people walk into hospitals a mess, why not us? I should be allowed to be as pale, sweaty, and panicked as I want, it’ll help sell the idea that there is something wrong with me.” 

**There is not something wrong with you.**

Eddie wanted to argue the fact that they didn’t know that, but instead he said, “But everyone else doesn’t know that. We’re going to a hospital, I should look sick.”

**This is dumb and you’re making us look bad.** Venom softened his voice and added, **It’s not about your looks… Worried about you, is all. I don’t like it when you’re stressed out, when you’re hurting and I can’t make it right.**

“Oh.” Eddie flexed his fingers so that Venom could weave around them and squeeze. “Thanks, for caring.”

Venom didn’t reply with words, but with a wave of comfort and the sense of belonging. He responded with love in a way that only Eddie could interpret. 

They pulled into the hospital lot and Eddie got out. He pulled the blanket around his body tighter, terrified that somehow someone would be able to see his wings, despite Anne, Dan and Venom insisting that they were well hidden. Anne left with the car, she said she would be back when Dan called. He followed Dan into the building and almost instantly the sharp chemical smell of disinfectant stung his nose. Last time they were here he didn’t remember it being so strong. **Last time you were here we were barely bonded. Your senses hadn’t had time to develop.** Eddie nodded and acknowledged Venom’s words with silent confirmations. 

As they moved through the halls Eddie was able to pick up on other scents. There was the sour smell of sick wafting in from one room, one wing had the heavy metallic scent of blood hanging off of it, and they could easily pick up the various musky odors of sweat from patients with fever. It unnerved Eddie to be able to get this much information out of just a few sniffs. He shook his head and focused instead on Dan’s back. They walked up a few flights of stairs and through a set of doors to a quieter, much more sterile area of the hospital. 

Dan opened a room and motioned for them to step inside. He locked it behind them and said, “We won’t be disturbed.” He gestured at an examination table while he moved across to a desk. “Please sit down.” Eddie did as instructed and settled down on the table. He could see Dan gather things from the desk. “I’m going to do the blood work first, have you ever had your blood taken?” 

“Yes,” Eddie replied. “A few times.” 

“Ok, good. That will make this easier,” As he approached with a needle and several vials he asked, “Venom knows I’m not here to hurt you right?” Eddie nodded and Dan proceeded. Eddie’s veins were clear and easy to access which saved them some time. He wiped the patch of skin down a sterile wipe then proceeded to draw blood. Each time he switched locations he ejected the tip into a small bin. “I want to take tissue samples too, from both you and Venom, is that ok?” He asked. Eddie nodded again and Venom appeared from his shoulder to consent as well. “It’s going to hurt,” Dan added as he carefully clipped away a bit of the black material that made up the alien. He took a small slice of skin off of Eddie and was amazed as it grew back almost instantly. 

“You can uh, you can see how surgery might be impossible with me, huh?” 

“Yes. How fast can you heal large injuries?” 

“Not sure,” Eddie said honestly, “we haven’t gotten torn apart to that degree since our fight with Riot. So far it’s been bullet holes and the occasional broken bone. All healed within minutes, the bones within seconds.” 

“That’s incredible. If the symbiotes weren’t sapient they could be a real benefit to humanity. Think of the applications their healing factor could have on humans.” 

Venom stole Eddie’s voice to growl, **“We don’t need to imagine it. We were studied, poked, prodded and paraded around in a laboratory. Got to hear all sorts of interesting things your kind wanted to do with mine. From men and women with a lot less conscious than you, Dan. From people who did not bother to consider us alive, but products to further your expansion into the universe.”**

“Venom I’m…” Dan didn't know what to say. “Sorry? I’m sorry. I forgot that you were a prisoner. I was just thinking out loud, I don’t intend to do anything with you.” 

**“We know.”** Venom flashed his teeth and said, **“Besides, we would not let you have the chance. I’m sure you can imagine the ways we could kill you.”**

“Venom!” Eddie pushed his face down. “We are not eating Dan, no matter what he does.” Venom just laughed darkly and vanished into Eddie’s body. “We won’t hurt you.”

“I know. I shouldn’t trust you, there’s a part of me, instinct probably, that is screaming for me to run away and never look back. But I’m ignoring it to trust you.” 

“Thank you.” Eddie looked at the vials of blood and the tissue samples. “So you’ll run those?” 

“Yes, after I do some x-rays of your back.” Dan reached up and grabbed a machine that was hanging from the ceiling. It was a smaller, more mobile x-ray device, meant for small images and quick assessments. But it would do well for this instance. “Can I have you lay down? Venom stop being his shirt and Eddie fan your wings out so they are outstretched.” Dan was getting more used to the way that the alien could retreat into Eddie’s body, but he was still fascinated by the wings on Eddie’s back. His eyes lingered on them and he had to make a pointed effort to take them away. 

“This is a small x-ray machine,” Dan said as he lined up his shots. “But it prints to this room and only this room and doesn’t leave digital records, so it’s perfect for us.” He wanted to get several images of his back, mostly where the wings attached near the shoulder blades. There was a real mystery to how the bones were aligned and what got moved to make room for the new appendages. The muscle attachments must also be quite complex, but he didn’t have a good way of imaging those without causing pain to the alien. 

The machine silently did its job and Eddie didn’t even realize they were done until Dan told him he could sit up. While the other man went to get the images Eddie stood and stretched out his wings. As he had predicted, keeping them tight against his body did hurt. It wasn’t a sharp sting, but more of a dull ache that penetrated deep. “V, I don’t know if I can do this for a whole day.” 

**We’ll work into it then. Just a few hours a day, build up your tolerance.**

Eddie shook his head slightly and said, “I think it would be best if we just amputated them.” 

**You like flying though.**

Eddie didn’t reply to that. Instead he joined Dan at the desk where he was hanging up the x-ray images. “That was fast,” Eddie said. 

“They print instantly,” Dan replied and tacked the last one up. He studied each image with increasing interest. “So this is interesting, the bone for your shoulder, the scapula, it’s moved and deformed. Not in a bad way, just in an interesting way. It looks like it’s been pushed out. Same with your clavicle, it’s pushed up, it also looks slightly larger? Could be to anchor more muscles. But what I really want to draw your attention to is this,” Dan said and pointed to one set of images. “These are pictures of your spinal column. What’s interesting here is that there appear to bits of bone woven in between the vertebrae. They look like structural discs, probably suspended in muscle or fluid. They’re reinforcing the area near the joins. And look at this, there’s an extra plate over the spine, perhaps to protect it in case you shatter a wing bone, more likely it’s yet another anchoring point for your new muscles.” 

“That’s interesting and all, but what does it mean?” 

“Well, for starters it means we can’t operate-” 

“You’re kidding.” 

Dan shook his head and replied, “No, I’m not. Look, the complexity involved here… it's far too close to the spine for me to comfortable with operating on.” 

“You’re a good doctor though, a surgeon, Anne’s told me you’re skilled.” 

“I am, but Eddie this isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen. Given the proximity to your spine, and the fact that I have no idea where the new major veins and arteries are, the nerves, I’m certain you have new nerve bundles… the new muscles, where they attach, the new bones and how they’re anchored… Eddie there’s a good chance you’ll die on the operating table, or at the very least end up permanently paralyzed.” 

“C-Could you fix that?” Eddie asked.

“No I can’t-” Dan started to talk but recognized the vacant look in Eddie’s eyes. He wasn’t speaking to him, he was talking to Venom. 

**I could fix it, probably. But I’m in agreement with Dan here. It’s too risky, nerves are tricky Eddie, if the good doctor does fuck up and I can’t repair it then that’s it. You’re done.**

“Not done, just… we’d have to do things differently, live life a bit differently.” 

**It’s not worth it. We aren’t discussing this anymore.**

 

Eddie growled low and said, “That’s not for you to decide. You don’t get to tell me when I’m done talking about this.” 

“Eddie I won’t operate on you. Ignoring the huge medical risk, this would require a team to pull off and we can’t expose you to that many people. It’s simply not feasible to remove all the new additions, especially given your ability to mend flesh at an accelerated rate. Too many variables, I’m not comfortable doing something like that.” 

“Well, could you at least cut them off just below the “elbow”? You don’t have to take them out all the way, just part of the way.” 

“Again, I’d be fighting your body’s healing factor.” 

**That kind of damage would probably be regrown as well. You’d have to continuously get them cut off. It would cause far too much stress on your body. Not ok with that.**

“Venom says they’d probably try to regrow from that type of procedure anyway…” 

Dan couldn’t help but feel sorry for Eddie. He looked so dejected upon hearing the news. “I’m sorry, I know that’s not what you want to hear. But you came to me for a professional opinion, and I’ve given it.” He put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Hey, today won’t be a total bust though. I still have your blood and tissue samples to run. We can at least see if we can figure out what caused them to grow in the first place.” 

“Yeah, I guess. I was just hoping for… something else?” Eddie looked up at the x-rays on the display board. It did look pretty complicated. For only growing in two days ago they sure were well integrated. He was actually pretty shocked at how fast the growth had happened. “Thank you, Dan, really. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Even if I don’t like what I hear… I think I do need to hear it.” 

Dan nodded, he liked the way Eddie was talking now. He didn’t seem quite as defeated as he had feared. “I’ll keep looking at these images, maybe I’ll spot something else that could help you. In the meantime, I’ll call Anne and have her come pick you up. I’ll call you with the test results when they come in. Expect them sometime in the next day or two.” 

“It takes that long?” 

“Yeah, I’m going to run a complex sequence on the tissues, but even with our technology and modern machines it’ll still take a long time… that’s assuming it’ll accept the culture I took from Venom. It might reject it outright.” 

“Right.” Eddie was only partially aware of what Dan had said. “Hey, don’t call Anne. I’ll find my own way home.” 

“Don’t walk, that’s too far, you don’t look up to it.” Dan couldn’t help but slip into his concerned doctor mode. “She won’t mind giving you a lift, that’s what we had planned after all.” 

Eddie was persistent though, he said, “No, it’s ok. Really. I’ll just fly back.” He took one last glance at the x-rays and flexed his wings. “If I can’t have them removed then I’d best get used to using them. Work them into my life. Guess I’ll start now.” 

“You’re sure?” Dan didn’t know if Eddie should be out, he looked too tired. 

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s no problem. We’ll climb up a fire escape and jump from a roof, no one will see us.” Though Eddie did realize that he had never flown during the day. He was hoping that people weren’t watching the sky. 

Dan lead them back out of the hospital and assured them both that he would work hard to get to the bottom of whatever had happened. If the bloodwork and gene testing provided no results then they would think of something else. 

\---

Eddie hauled himself up the fire escape, it wasn’t a difficult jump, even though ground access is restricted. He could move in ways normal humans couldn’t. Once on the escape it was easy and fast to get to the roof. They stood on the edge and looked around. As far as they could tell nobody was watching them. The apartment complex they chose to scale wasn’t very tall, but it was better than some of the surrounding buildings and restaurants. Venom vanished back into Eddie’s body so that his wings could unfold without hitting the shirt he had become. “This part is never easy,” Eddie said as he stepped off the ledge and dropped. 

Like before it was getting easier and easier to snap out his wings correctly and rise in the air. They didn’t strain his back and he assumed that perhaps that was because of the extra muscles that were growing in. Eddie found his confidence building with each successful take off and moment they didn’t stall in midair. 

**We like this Eddie. This is nice.**

Eddie took a large lungful of air and nodded. He couldn’t disagree. The wind was coming in off of the ocean and it carried them high into the air above the city. While San Francisco wasn’t the cleanest city around, it was still nice to rise above the smog and soar higher than they had dared to go before. The boost in confidence was enough where he started to practice more complex or risky maneuvers. They were high enough in the sky where even if he messed up there was plenty of room to correct the mistake before falling to a spot where someone could easily see them.

As much as Eddie hated to admit it, the wide, graceful, banking, and the way he cut through the air was enjoyable. No, it was more than enjoyable, it felt _right_ , natural. They didn’t hang out over the bay, but kept to flying high above the city. 

**We should learn to ride the thermals that come off of the ocean.**

“Yeah?” 

**Yes. And also learn to ride the currents caused by cliffs or valleys.**

“Hmmm, we might be fresh out of cliffs around here, but maybe we can take a trip or two.” 

**Acceptable. Besides, I’ve always wanted to see more of your world. This city and the surrounding suburbs are rather boring.**

Eddie laughed. “I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but it’s mostly desert out past our state’s borders. This part of the continent is mostly barren.” 

**Then we don’t go to those places. We learned of a place with giant trees. We would like to go there.”**

“Sequoia National Park? Or the Redwood National Forest? Both have pretty big trees.” 

**Sequoia, we would like to see those.**

“Sure, yeah. We can go there. It’s not too far, like four hours south-east. We could easily make a day trip out there. Or shit, if you’re up to it we could camp there. You’ve never been camping.” 

**We haven’t done many earth things.**

Eddie could feel a bit of excitement grow within Venom. It radiated out into his own mind and made him feel the same level of emotions. He pumped his wings with renewed vigor and pulled them up into a quick loop. “I can’t imagine how cool it would be to soar over those forests. Beautiful, I just know it.” 

They dipped down a bit and started to survey the city. Venom suggested they stop at Mrs. Chen’s shop to pick up some food for the next few days. It was a good idea, and they hadn’t spoken with her in a while. It would be nice to check in. As they made their way closer and closer to the rooftop levels Eddie began to wonder just how noticeable they were. It wasn’t night and his wings were bright red with flashy black markings. Not very stealthy against a partially cloudy sky. 

“Should we drop down onto a roof?” 

**Let’s try another alleyway landing. The last time we tried ended poorly. I think you can do better this time.**

“V, we’ve nearly fucked up every landing we’ve ever attempted.” Eddie found taking off far, far, easier than landing. Venom replied with a hint of snark that he wouldn’t get better unless he practiced. 

So he tilted his wings made a sharp turn to align himself with a back alley near the shop. Carefully he dipped down in between the buildings and was thankful they were two commercial ones and not residential. There tended to be cables and lines between residentials that he knew would be a nightmare to navigate around. The drastic cut in the amount of wind caught Eddie off guard. He felt himself drop suddenly, but the tight space made it hard for him to open his wings enough to fully correct. Eddie tried to pull back up and try the approach again but the speed at which they were flying made that impossible before they spat out into the main road. 

“Oh shit,” Eddie said under his breath and tried to angle for another alleyway. The wind shifted again and he found himself thrown not towards an alley but a storefront. Mrs. Chen’s. “Oh no, oh no, no, no, oh fuck.” 

Venom was trying to calm Eddie down so he could think clearly, but he seemed to have a grasp on what to do. He threw his legs forward and cupped his wings to start slowing down. They continued to drop in height, Venom was certain he heard a few people gasp. They were still coming in too fast and a few powerful downbeats didn’t correct their momentum before Eddie’s feet touched the pavement. 

They half stumbled, half crashed through the door to her shop and promptly tripped and slammed into the floor just inside. Eddie groaned and rolled over to his side. “Once again, that could have gone better.” 

“Eddie?” He looked up to see the concerned face of Mrs. Chen looking down at them from behind the counter. 

“Oh, hi Mrs. Chen. Sorry about the crash landing, I don’t think we broke the door.” 

She shook her head and said exasperated, “It’s always something with you two.” Her eyes were on them as they stood up and stretched. “You look tired, having trouble sleeping again?” 

“Just a bit.” He folded his wings, grabbed a small basket and looked around the shop for some things to eat. He ended up grabbing a loaf of bread, a package of lunch meat, a bag of apples, and some milk. **Don’t forget potatoes! We are out of potatoes. And juice.** “I only have so many hands V. Let's just get things for lunches for the week. We can hit a bigger store for dinner foods.” A tendril shot out and tossed a bag of potato chips at Eddie who caught it with a free hand. “Jalapeno flavor? You know that’s spicy right?” **Yes. You like spicy food.** “Indeed I do, thanks.” It wasn’t Venom’s favorite, he preferred rich or savory foods. 

He placed his items up on the counter and for once Mrs. Chen didn’t look at them in a disapproving manner. They had been making a marked effort to eat better, especially after Eddie managed to crawl out of the depressive episode he had been in. 

As she was ringing him up Mrs. Chen asked, “How is Venom doing?” 

“Oh, he’s good.” 

She smiled when his head popped out of Eddie’s shoulder. “I’m putting your favorite chocolate bar in the bag, for you to eat after dinner.” 

Venom thanked her, but he knew he was going to devore it seconds after crossing through the front door. 

After Eddie paid and put the food in a bag Chen said to him, “So… those are new.” 

She gestured at the wings that were tightly folded against Eddie’s back. “Oh,” he said, “oh yeah, I uh, I grew wings the other day.” He flared them out for her to see before he stuck them against his back again. 

“They’re pretty,” she said. “Don’t crash through my window.” 

Eddie cracked a smile and waved. “I won’t, I promise.” Venom covered them on their way out, quickly becoming a black shirt and leather coat. “Ok,” Eddie said and looked around. There weren’t too many people who were still lingering around and nobody approached them. “Let’s hope we don’t end up on the nightly news for that little mishap.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays everyone!  
> My gift to you is a 30 page update! This chapter is roughly the same length as the previous two combined, haha.  
> This is more typical of the length of chapters I'm known for writing. 
> 
> I'm done with my finals, laboratory, and general university work, so I have a bit more time to write again. I should be able to crank out some more updates.  
> If you've been keeping count, I keep inserting another chapter onto the predicted chapter number for this story, mostly because I keep misguessing what I can fit into a chapter plot wise. Like, example, they were supposed to get the test results back in this chapter, but that would have added an extra ten pages minimum to this chapter and I didn't want to post a 40 page update. That seems excessive. 
> 
> They will figure out what's going on next chapter though. That is for sure. I thiiiiink I can also introduce the main conflict of the story next chapter too. Which should be fun! Well, not fun for Eddie and Venom.
> 
> Anyways, this chapter was mostly dialogue, which I know isn't everyone's favorite thing. I'm doing a mix of lore here, partially movie verse, and partially comic verse. I might develop some of the Klyntar stuff more in future chapters, but it's not following one strict version for canon, more like a blend of ideas I liked from both and a good healthy dose of headcanon. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed it! As always, comments are appreciated! Let me know what you liked, and what you didn't like! I want to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday season!
> 
> FANART:  
> http://lordtye.tumblr.com/post/179860774457/morphinefangs-wings-of-change-by-tien-on-ao3-is  
> http://yorugami.tumblr.com/post/179984004118/venom-takes-self-improvement-to-a-whole-new


	4. Uncharted Territory

The sound of Eddie’s phone ringing could hardly be heard over the gusting wind. “V could you get that?” A tendril brought the phone to Eddie’s ear while he concentrated on riding the strong winds over the ocean. It was still early in the morning, he wasn’t sure who exactly would be calling them. “Hello, this is Eddie Brock,” he said as evenly as he could. Though there was little he could do to hide the slight out of breath sound his voice had taken. 

“Eddie? This is Dan. I can hardly hear you, what are you doing?” 

“I’m uh, jogging,” he said. He wasn’t even sure why he lied, there was no reason to. 

“Oh, well, I finally got all of your tests in and they’re uh, they’re something, that’s for sure.” 

Eddie frowned and Venom vibrated with worry inside his chest. “Something bad or something good?” He asked. 

“Just… something. I ran the comparative analysis twice, that’s why it took so long to get back to you. I wanted to make sure.” Eddie didn’t like the turn this conversation had taken. “I want to go over the results with you in person.”

“Y-Yeah sure. I’ll be right in. Just give me time to get there.” He hung up and looked at Venom who had materialized a head next to his. “Well? I guess we’ll finally have our answers huh?” 

**Yes.** Venom squeezed Eddie’s hand. **We will know. Whatever Dan tells us will be more than we had before.** His words didn’t quell any of the fear inside of Eddie but they did give him a small bit of strength.

Eddie looked back behind them at the thin line that was the coast. He very briefly debated just letting the wind hurl him out to sea. But Venom and his friends were right, he couldn’t run from this. Not anymore. He angled his wings and dove into a wide bank so they could head home. For the past few days they had been practicing flight maneuvers over the open ocean. There was no shortage of wind and zero obstacles for them to avoid. Best of all there was hardly anyone who could see them. The only downside was that it took a fair bit of flying to get back over solid ground. 

Venom thought Eddie was making great progress with his flying abilities. His endurance had increased dramatically as well as his technical skill. His partner was now able to turn sharply, roll, do loops, and pull out of steep dives without any pain. This morning they were just gliding, Venom had told Eddie that it was important to do long stretches of gliding to build up their strength and to get accustomed to riding different wind patterns and thermals. He was pleased to find that Eddie didn’t mind doing just that. He said it was like going out for a morning jog, he liked it. They both knew he got a thrill from flying. Sometimes Venom wondered if that thrill would die away as their new routine established itself.

They were well over the city when Venom had to question the direction they were going in. “We have to stop at home first so I can get the bike.” Eddie chuckled. “No V, we still cannot just fly to the hospital.” 

**We could fly close and land on a nearby roof.**

“You’re right, we could, but I’d much rather just ride over to the hospital. We hardly ever take the bike anymore. I enjoy riding it as much as flying.”

**Liar.**

Eddie rolled his eyes and increased the speed at when they were flying. Venom whipped a tentacle out and caught a passing seagull which squawked in surprise. The bird vanished into a gaping mouth lined with teeth. “Do you have to pluck them straight from the sky?” 

**Breakfast.** He caught another and held it out so Eddie could see it. **Want one?**

As much as his stomach growled with interest he declined. “No thanks, I’ll grab a granola bar when we get home.” 

**Suit yourself.** He ate five more birds as they flew over the city. Venom certainly enjoyed the ease at which they could hunt the birds. They hadn’t seemed to catch on that they were predators and so they could get pretty close. It made for easy snacks mid-flight. **Eddie.**

“Yeah?” 

**I still am very sorry about our first flight. How we made you eat that man. That innocent.**

Eddie swallowed back spit and said, “It’s ok. Really, I forgave you, and I forgave myself. We were hurt and exhausted.” 

**You haven’t forgiven yourself though,** Venom said, there wasn’t an ounce of an accusatory tone in his voice. **And you haven’t forgiven me. Not really. You still have nightmares about it, it still weighs on your mind, especially on quiet nights.**

“I just… You’re right. Maybe I haven’t completely forgiven myself yet. It’s a lot to deal with, I don’t think you realize it. It might be a cultural difference, between humans and the Klyntar. I know you tend to see all living things as just meat, as energy. I can understand that, really I can. It’s just…” 

Realization hit Venom. Eddie had let two things slip. Two interesting things. The first was, **You enjoyed it.** He could feel Eddie confirm. **You enjoyed it, and that scares you. You’re afraid.**

“Of course I’m afraid! It’s not right! There’s a reason it’s taboo, I’m not _supposed_ to enjoy it! It’s gross and the whole thing freaks me out!” 

**But…**

“But you’re right,” Eddie said. “There is a small part of me that likes it, likes being the hunter, likes the… taste…” 

**And that’s why you don’t want to do it anymore?**

“Yeah,” Eddie replied. “I don’t want to get any more comfortable with the idea than I already am. At first it was fine, a few bad guys here and there, you told me you needed it. I believe you. But then something happened, I started not to get bothered by it and that…” 

**Bothers you more?**

“You got it. The act doesn’t bother me anymore and _that_ bothers me. It scares me. It frames the world as an “us vs them” way I don’t like. I don’t want to see the rest of humanity as anything other than fellow humans.” 

Venom considered all of this, a lot of it made perfect sense and he couldn’t blame Eddie for thinking that way. **We understand.** But understanding wasn’t enough and they both knew that. This was an issue that wouldn’t be solved with one or two talks, especially not while Eddie was partially distracted with keeping them in the air. 

Together they landed on the fire escape with something approaching practiced ease. Venom slid under the window and unlocked it so Eddie could climb through. He folded his wings and Venom covered them with a shirt and jacket. True to his word he grabbed a few granola bars on his way out of the apartment, stopping only briefly to check his reflection in the mirror, not that it helped, he mostly just saw Venom now, and to grab the keys for his bike. 

The roads were starting to fill with traffic as the sun rose higher in the sky. Even so, Eddie still made decent time to the hospital. He parked the bike in the ramp next to the main building and walked inside as casually as he could. The various smells inside still unnerved him but he was able to push it down and text Dan that he was waiting in the lobby. 

“Can’t you… I don’t know, deaden my senses for a bit?” 

**Why would we do that?** Venom was truly perplexed. **Why would you want to be more vulnerable?**

“Never mind,” Eddie mumbled and found a place to lean against the wall and wait. “I just don’t like smelling the sickness, or death, or the sharp smell of cleaning fluids. That’s all.” 

Venom rumbled in his mind, soft and not aggressive. **The antiseptic smell reminds me of the labs. Memories I’m not fond of. Understand the uncomfortable feeling, even if it’s for different reasons.**

“We should probably talk about that, right?”

**Perhaps later. Maybe after you open up more about your father?**

Eddie scoffed. “Yeah, no that’s not happening.” He could feel Venom chuckle inside his skull. Warmth spread through his body indicating that his partner wasn’t serious or pressing. It was an honest suggestion, but not one that needed to be considered. “Thanks,” Eddie said under his breath. He could feel some eyes on him, but he figured lots of people probably talk to themselves at hospitals. Or, at least he hoped so.

It wasn’t long before Dan appeared and greeted them before hurrying them along to the same room they were lead to before. This time when the door was opened there was a person already inside. Luckily it registered between Eddie and Venom that it was someone they knew and they eased their claws back to fingers. “Anne?” 

Dan said, “I invited her for this too. I figured we should all know what is going on, it would save time in explaining it over and over again.” 

That was fair, Eddie thought. He had excluded Anne from so much already, and there was no doubt that Dan would just tell her later. This wasn’t something he expected one person to hold in alone. That kind of pressure could eat a person, Eddie knew first hand. When he worked as an investigative journalist there were many times where he had to hold information alone while he worked on a story. Because if what he knew was spread it would ruin any chances of the story providing actual real justice. That burden was hard to carry and he didn’t expect someone without that background to subject themself to that. 

Dan walked them to a desk that had a few large display monitors resting on the surface. “Ok, so, let's start with the basics I guess.” He put the x-rays up for Anne to look at. He gave her a similar, but shorter, interpretation to the one that he gave Eddie. “Now for the more telling tests. First off, congratulations Eddie, you do not have the X-Gene.” 

“Ok,” Eddie nodded. He was expecting that. “Good to know.” 

“It’s something far more complicated,” Dan continued. He pulled up a program on one of the bigger computer monitors. “Ok, so I took samples from both you and Venom. I ran the DNA sequences, and this is interesting, look it’s Venom’s genome. He’s made of the same types of base pairs we are, I was honestly expecting him to made of something different, like instead of having a double helix shape it’s a triple with extra base pair types.” 

Dan paused to look over at the three. He understood they were all exceptionally intelligent, but in their own ways. Their knowledge on genetics might be severely lacking. “This was a surprise, because I was certain that Venom’s DNA wouldn’t have been able to be run through this program. I thought for sure it would throw up errors. But it didn’t, and that’s where it gets interesting. This program lets you cross compare different organisms. It will highlight in green the gene sequences that are the same and in red the sequences that are different. Computers have gotten remarkably fast at this, we can narrow down and look at individual gene base pairs and cross compare them to other species fairly quickly and easily.” 

He brought up another screen in the same program. “This is Venom compared to a human. As you can see,” he scrolled through the rows and rows of genes, “there are many, many sections highlighted green.” 

“Incredible,” Anne said.

With a small laugh Dan said, “Don’t be too impressed. Humans share something like sixty percent of their genome with bananas. It is incredible that something from the stars, from space, is so similar.” 

Eddie spoke up to say, “Venom wonders if it’s because he’s bonded to me. That Klyntar are made to be molded so the similarities are because he’s with me and not say, a cat.” 

Dan turned to Venom who had appeared out of Eddie’s body. He looked into what he hoped were the eyes and said, “You’re perceptive Venom. I knew you wouldn’t have any trouble following along. However I don’t think you’re right in your assumption that Eddie is changing you.” 

Eddie didn’t say anything to that but he had a feeling he knew where Dan was going.

“I thought the same thing, actually,” Dan said. “I thought that perhaps your unique biology was influenced by Eddie. So I also ran your genome against Eddie’s and then Eddie’s against the stock human as well.” 

“And?” Eddie asked, his voice barely above a whisper. 

“Well what I found was the reason I called you in.” He brought up two more screens. “Here you can see the comparison between a normal human’s genome on top, followed by Venom’s, then yours Eddie. The same things apply, green means the same, red means different. What’s interesting is that Venom’s DNA remains nearly the same if we compare it to yours and the base human. I wish we had a sample of Klyntar DNA to run separately, of one not touched by a human. But what I really wanted to pull your attention to, is this. You can clearly see that large swatches of Venom’s DNA lines up with Eddies, meaning you two have genetic similarities, these similarities are also shared between the base human.” 

Anne spoke up and pointed to sections of red on Eddie’s line, “But look, here are patches where Venom and the human base match up but Eddie deviates.” 

“Exactly!” Dan said. He highlighted a few of those parts. “This shows that you have some unique parts of your genome that do not line up with a standard human. It’s not particularly exciting, genetic mutations happen frequently between individuals and the base human is a compilation of several different humans into one, so it’s not out of the ordinary that you would deviate slightly. Here’s something even more interesting, and I think what could explain your wings.” Dan scrolled along the sequences a little further then stopped at a section he thought demonstrated his point. “Now remember how I said that Venom matched up with the human base quite a lot? So here’s something interesting, these are sections where Venom matches with Eddie but not with the human base, and likewise these sections on Eddie don’t line up with the human base either.” Dan looked behind him to see if Eddie was following. “Meaning it’s something that you share with Venom that the rest of us don’t.” 

Eddie had trouble controlling his voice when he asked, “And how many sections are like that?” 

“That,” Dan said, “is why I ran the sequences twice. Eddie there’s a fairly startling amount of your genome that lines up with Venom but not with the base human. There’s also a staggering amount of your DNA that doesn’t match with either, implying it’s mutations that are distinctly your own.” 

“How much?” Eddie asked.

There was a slight hesitation before Dan answered, “About twenty five percent, a quarter.” 

The room had gone silent as Eddie processed what he was being told. Then there was a low rumbling growl that Dan and Anne were surprised to hear come from Eddie. It was low, animalistic, and not a sound that should be able to come from a human throat. “You said this wasn’t you!” Eddie said to Venom. “It _is_ you you lying snake!” 

**That is not what I said! I said it was improbable, that I had never heard of something like this happening, that it wasn’t me who-**

“Fuck you! You knew!” Eddie snarled and pointed at the screens. “Twenty five damn percent isn’t small! That’s a quarter of me that isn’t me it’s you!” 

“Eddie?” Anne reached out to Eddie who had his back turned to them while he yelled at Venom. Eddie rounded on Anne who gasped and fell back a few steps. Eddie’s mouth was filled with pointed teeth and his eyes were in a state that were halfway between human eyes and Venom’s eyespots. It was like he was mid transformation. 

When Eddie saw how Anne reacted he paused, felt his face then said, “Anne, Dan, could you give Venom and I some space?” 

“What?” Anne was confused and ready to refuse. 

“You don’t have to go far, just maybe outside the room? I think we need to scream at each other, and things can get… monstrous when we argue. I really don’t need you to see us like that.” Dan’s hesitation was obvious. “We won’t destroy the room, we just need to say some things… in a not so calm manner.” He could already feel both his own rage and Venom’s bubbling up. “It’ll be quick, just for a bit.” 

The two looked at each other, then back at Eddie who had sharp teeth bared in a grimace and Venom who looked just as upset. Venom spoke using Eddie’s voice, **“It’s not like we will kill each other. We gave up that option a while ago.”**

Eddie glared at his partner and snarled. “Should never have let you talk me into-” 

Dan grabbed Anne’s arm and said, “Ok, ok, we’re going.” He opened the door and glanced back. “We’ll be right outside, and I’ll lock the door. There shouldn’t be anyone in the rooms next door and and you can’t hear between floors, so feel free to let it all out.” 

With the door shut and locked Anne asked, “Are you sure this is wise?” Almost instantly as it clicked they could hear Eddie start yelling. “Last time they fought in here…” 

“Last time they fought they weren’t in love,” Dan said. “Last time they were here they had only known each other for a few hours at best and one was killing the other.” 

“I just… I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.” 

Dan raised an eyebrow and said, “Like you’ve never fought before. Like we haven’t?” They both could hear something that didn’t sound human come from the room. Dan assumed it was the Klyntar. “Some people work out their problems calmly over coffee, others need to vent, yell, get everything out in the open so they can process it together.”

“That thing lives in his head, what could they possibly have to work through out loud that they couldn’t do in their heads?”

Dan shrugged. “I won’t pretend to know anything about the nature of their relationship. They’re something unique, and it seems Eddie is most comfortable with talking out loud to the Klyntar. This is a fairly safe environment for them to have this shouting match in.” 

Anne was quiet for a bit, she could still hear them arguing in the other room, but it seemed less aggressive, more like a conversation now. She leaned against Dan. “You said a quarter of Eddie isn’t human anymore. Do you think that number will go up? Will Eddie turn into one of those things?” She didn’t know if she could stand the thought of that, of losing her friend completely. 

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I don’t think the species that Venom is operates that way. I don’t think this was an intended result, and from what Venom described to me last night, I don’t think they can turn something into them.” 

“Just worried,” Anne said. “About Eddie. He grew _wings_. Just now he had those teeth and claws and Venom wasn’t covering him. How much further will he slip?”

Dan didn’t have the answers she was seeking, he wouldn’t have the answers Eddie and Venom would be looking for either. “We’ll deal with that when we get to it. There’s a chance this is it, just a bit of overlap between them.” 

“Dan…” Anne said softly. “Dan I bonded to Venom. Do you think I could be… you know, like Eddie?” 

“I doubt it. I think what happened to Eddie is because he made the bond permanent, or because of the extended exposure he’s had to Venom. But I can run a sample of your DNA through the same program and compare it to Eddie and Venom.” 

“I would like that, could you do that?” 

“Yes, I’ll draw some blood before we leave today.” 

\---

Eddie and Venom had enough sense to wait until the door was shut and Dan and Anne weren’t in the room before they resumed snarling at each other. Venom pulled away as much as he could so he could form into a body with a head, chest and arms. **Eddie I want you to understand that I didn’t do this to you.**

“How stupid do you think I am? My DNA didn’t get combined with yours on it’s own!” 

**Yes. It did.** Venom growled and threw his hands up exasperated. **I didn’t tell it to do that. I didn’t mess with your genes Eddie! Sure I messed with other things-**

Eddie wanted scream. Instead he made a guttural growl and said with flashing teeth, “You _told_ me I would stay me! That nothing would happen to _me,_ Eddie Brock, and that was clearly a lie!” He flared his wings and took a few steps towards Venom who bared his fangs in return.

They started to stalk around each other in a circle, like feral cats before a fight. The two sized each other up. Opponents that couldn’t harm each other with anything other than words. 

**I can’t lie to you if I never knew it was going to happen!** Venom met his host’s eyes and pulled their faces close. **Our whole relationship is built on mutual trust Eddie! All of this!** He backed away and gestured not only to himself but to Eddie as well. **All of what we are and what we will ever be is built on trust! On you and I understanding each other! What purpose would lying to you serve? Tell me that Eddie. What fucking purpose would lying to you have?**

Now it was only Venom who circled Eddie. His eyes trained on his host. 

Eddie faltered and fumbled with a response. “You’d get a host? One forever?”

**And to what point? Eddie I’m disappointed in you.**

“Oh? You’re disappointed in me? Ha, ha, sorry I forgot to laugh at your funny joke!” Eddie could feel his jaw shift as more teeth came in with his anger. “You’re not the one who just found out their humanity is being stripped away by a parasite they let get too close!” 

**Is that all I am? Is that all WE are?** Venom swirled around close to Eddie and growled low in his mind. **This is why I am disappointed in you Eddie. Here I thought I found a partner, a lover. Instead I found a coward who turns around and blames the first thing he can find!**

“You take that back! I am not a coward! You’re the one who used me, got inside of me, and changed my body without my consent!” 

Venom’s eyespots raised in shock. **Without your… I always asked for consent Eddie! I never made a single change you didn’t agree to. Your vision, your sense of smell and taste, I asked before I made those adjustments. I asked your permission to permanently bond with you! Explained what it meant and you agreed! You did Eddie! You weren’t drunk, you weren’t tired, you weren’t stressed. You made that choice all on your own!**

“Well maybe I made a mistake!” He watched Venom back away from him at his words.

Venom recovered quickly to say, **Too bad! You’re stuck with me! And I’m stuck with you!** Venom and Eddie stared each other down, Eddie was breathing hard, his teeth still sharp, his face twisted into a shape halfway between forms. Then the mood shifted rapidly. Fear quickly replaced anger and it crept up Venom through their connection. **Eddie…**

“Venom I’m scared! I’m scared of what this means for me. I’m not human anymore! What if I…” he looked at the wings, at the claws on his hands and his reflection in the Klyntar’s eyes. “What if I keep changing? What if it can’t be stopped?” 

Venom got closer and put tendrils around Eddie. **We will face that Eddie. We will face that together.**

The words left Eddie’s mouth before he could stop them. “What if we separated? Used sound like those cannons and split apart.” He could feel Venom’s shock and he quickly reached for him before he could pull away. “I didn’t, Venom no. I don’t want…” 

**You don’t know what you want.**

“V I-” Eddie shook his head. “I want you. I just don’t want this.” He gestured at his wings and at the computer screen. There was relief clear in Venom, Eddie could feel it. “I didn’t make a mistake,” Eddie added. “That was dumb of me to say.” He put a hand on Venom to feel that he was still there. His hand was quickly enveloped into Venom and squeezed. “I just, twenty five percent…” 

**If I had known I would have told you. You have to believe me.** Eddie nodded and Venom could feel his knees give out. He gently lowered Eddie to floor and let him lean against him. **I learned that you treasure your humanity above all else.**

Eddie disagreed. “No,” he said and wiped an eye clear of a tear. “No not above all else, not above you. I really do care about you.” 

Venom smiled, the difference between a grin and his normal face was subtle, but Eddie was used to reading him now. **We have so much to work on, work through, understand about each other.** Eddie nodded and put his head into Venom’s chest. **This whole time you were yelling at me, telling me how I changed you. Eddie I don’t think you understand how I felt. How I feel.**

“I don’t?” He mumbled through teeth that now felt far too sharp and numerous in his mouth. 

**Our partnership Eddie, it’s not just that to us.** He pulled Eddie’s face out his chest so their eyes could meet. **Instead of thinking of this as a change, as a corruption, as a taking. Why not think of this like I do? As a becoming? Eddie we’re becoming something new, something probably better. Two individuals coming together to be more than what we were apart.**

“A becoming,” Eddie let that sink in as Venom sunk back into his body, a warm comfort. He pulled his wings in and hugged himself and Venom. “Ok. A becoming. I think I’ll try and and at peace with that.” 

Venom jabbed Eddie in the side with a tendril, not enough to hurt. **You really should have considered how I felt about this.**

“ ‘M not a very good boyfriend,” Eddie said. “Just ask Anne.” 

**Humans,** V said with a subtle laugh. 

“Hey,” Eddie protested back, “that’s not a fair assessment, you’ve only had like…”

 **Twenty two** Venom supplied.

“Twenty two hosts. That’s not a large sample size.” 

Venom moved some hair from Eddie’s face. **We’ve been together long enough for me to make sweeping statements about humans.**

“We…” Eddie looked into Venom’s big eyes. “We’re still _we_ right?” 

**Always.** Venom also added, **We said some things just now… things we will have to talk about. But later.**

“Later,” Eddie agreed. “We should probably let Dan and Anne back in.” He got to his feet and found Venom was steadying his wobbly legs. “Sorry I instantly thought you lied to me.” 

**To you it was a logical conclusion. To me, it makes no sense.**

“Yeah, I should have figured. You’re right our whole deal is trust, lying would make a mockery of what we are.” Eddie knocked on the door and said, “You can come back in, we’re done.” 

The door was unlocked and Dan stepped in. Anne’s eyes were wide at Eddie’s appearance but Dan kept his expression more guarded. “Get it all worked out?” He asked.

“Mostly,” Eddie said. And shook his hand out, as he did his fingers went back to being fingers. “I panicked, that panic turned to a snap judgment made out of anger. I got it out of my system.” 

Dan said, “Good, good. It would be hard to work with you two if you hated each other. So, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Venom didn’t actively change your DNA?” 

“He didn’t.” Venom appeared out of Eddie’s shoulder, much smaller than he was during the argument. “He also didn’t know it would happen. He thinks it’s because of the permanent bond. We might have merged too much? Or too quickly? He’s not sure.” 

A stack of papers was handed to Eddie from Dan. “These are the rest of your tests. I ran several different toxicology reports, some were on you, the others on Venom, just to cover my bases. You both came out clean, there’s no other contaminants in your system. You probably have Venom to thank for that I imagine.” 

“No radioactive superpowers for me?” 

“No Eddie, you’re good.” Dan put a hand on one of Eddie’s wings. “These are all natural, and apparently all you. I wonder which set of genes controlled their expression? I’m not a geneticist so I’ll probably never know. It would be interesting to be able to isolate out what did it, cross compare it to bats or birds, see if they’re made of the same stuff.” 

“Hey,” Eddie tried to joke, “perhaps if I get captured by an evil laboratory I can ask them to figure it out.” 

Anne spoke up, “Please don’t get captured by an evil laboratory. There… isn’t an evil laboratory right? You two told me you didn’t go snooping around in one.” 

Venom narrowed his eyes at Eddie and Eddie explained the gesture. “V says technically it was me who explained, not him, and no there’s no evil lab. My days of snooping around in shady medical corporations are long gone.” 

“Oh yeah,” Dan said and took the paperwork back from Eddie, the other man hardly read any of it. He figured Venom might be curious so he tucked them away into a folder for him to read over later. “You do reports on criminals right? Like serial killers and such?” 

“Yeah, I figured I’d take a new direction.” 

“I have to ask, why?” Dan was very curious but never asked, the topic never came up. “I liked the work you did in investigative journalism.” 

“I needed a change of pace, something slower, something where I could take more time and write deeper pieces. Do old fashion research through police reports and public records. Plus,” Eddie added with a predatory grin, “nobody in those cells can scare me, not anymore.” 

**It pays to be the top predator.** Venom said to Eddie who placed a hand on his face. **We enjoy watching them try to frighten and intimidate you. If only they knew…**

Anne said thoughtfully, “I suppose no normal human could be dangerous to you right? I mean, you can leap across buildings, crush cars, bite off…” 

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “I mean maybe we can be stopped, we’re not invincible, but the average person? They wouldn’t stand a chance. Anyways, that’s why we’ve been careful. Can’t have too many rumors of a big monster stalking the streets of San Francisco.” 

“We saw you on TV the other day,” Dan said.

Eddie choked on his own breath. “You what?” 

“Someone got cell phone footage of you crashing into a storefront the other day. Another person caught some lesser quality footage of you flying between some buildings.” 

“Ah shit,” Eddie rubbed his head with a free hand. “That didn’t last. Hopefully no one puts any pieces together… Was my face visible? Like could someone identify me if they didn’t know it was me?” 

“I don’t think so,” Anne said. “It happened too fast and the person recording the scene left the area after you crashed. I don’t think they wanted to stick around. You made quite the stir as Venom last year on your first night. I think they feared you were another rampaging monster.” 

“Never meant to scare people,” Eddie said. “Not then, not now. But it worked in our favor I suppose.” 

“Eddie,” Dan said, “I have a question. Research related. If you don’t mind?” 

“Yeah sure, go.” 

“Could you turn into Venom for me?” 

Eddie and Venom looked at each and both shrugged. “Sure.” The feeling of Venom sliding over his body was slightly different this time. Usually the sensation is warm and settles into coolness as his body dissolves into his partner. But there were clearly lingering feelings left behind from their argument a few moments ago. Everything was too warm and it was harder for Eddie to synch up and become one with Venom. 

Of course they did, they always managed to merge successfully. Venom gave their body a shake and stood at their full height. They towered over Dan and Anne. **“There, we are Venom. What now?”**

“Wow,” was all Dan said. He had never seen Venom up close. He pushed away the instinct to run and walked forward. The flesh underneath his hand was cool, not clammy, but not as warm as he expected. It was hard to explain how it felt, like skin but soft, it moved and rippled beneath his touch. As he walked around he asked “Where are the wings?” 

**“They are Eddie’s not ours. We suppose we could make some, the knowledge to do so would be there. But we don’t know if we could fly with them. We might be far too heavy.”**

“Fascinating.” Dan walked back to the front and said, “Where is Eddie? Is he floating around in there? Like a mech operator in the movies?” 

Venom chuckled. **“Eddie _is_ us. We are Venom.** He tilted his head to the side. **“He’s not gone, gone. Our two separate parts communicate, his voice is in our head, like Venom’s is in his when we are not in this form.”**

“Can you open up your mouth?” Dan asked. “And kneel down so I can see?”

Venom nodded and opened his mouth wide, he could feel his jaw unhinge in the way that allowed them to devour heads whole. He got down on one knee so Dan could see inside. He had a feeling he knew what the doctor was trying to see. 

Dan looked down into Venom’s throat and was amazed at how natural it looked, how biotic. “There’s real muscle lining, and a mucous layer, teeth, tongue,” he could feel Venom breathe out through his mouth too, “and airway. But no Eddie. I watched… I watched you form over him. His head should be right here. You don’t have a gag reflex right?” Venom shook his head. Dan put his arm down Venom’s throat and felt around. Then he got on his tip toes and peered deeper inside. Anne could be heard gasping in the background. “He’s not here. Where did he go? What did you mean by he wasn’t gone gone?” 

Venom tried to form words around Dan’s arm and body but found it hard. **“Agh, aaarm.”**

“Oh, yes, sorry.” He pulled his arm and head away. 

The massive creature laughed and said, **“Eddie becomes us. His body melds completely with ours. It is far more efficient than simply covering him in our own cells. We can still feel him, his emotions, he can send us signals, gestures, Eddie is not gone, he’s us.”** Venom sat back on his haunches looked down at Anne and Dan. **“We didn’t do that with you Anne. We simply covered you.”**

“Yeah I don’t remember… that happening to me.” 

**“We covered Eddie too, that night. Mostly. We were still getting our bearings after being freed. It’s hard to be in total… symbiosis? Is that what you humans call it? Symbiosis with our hosts. That night Eddie was still new and I was out of practice. But this type of bonding is far more natural for Klyntar.”**

“So what happens if you’re forced apart when you’re like this?” 

Venom frowned. **“Eddie’s body would rapidly reform as our cells were pulled from his. It’s painful. We would much rather shift and separate on our terms and control. That doesn’t hurt.”**

“Can you demonstrate? Going back?” Venom nodded.

Eddie was fully aware of the conversation and knew the signals Venom gave that they were going to revert back. Becoming his own person again was far more strange than when he joined with Venom. There were nerve connections that were severed and he could feel the shift in his mind from things _they_ felt to things _he_ felt. Sensations became focused and localized to his thoughts as his body reformed and Venom’s retreated into his newly formed flesh.

Dan watched Eddie step out of Venom and the rest of the alien vanish into his skin. “That all you wanted to see?” He shook out his wings and stretched. 

“And all your parts just… go back to where they’re supposed to be?” 

“Yeah, so far I haven’t come back wrong.” He looked at Dan and Anne’s surprised expressions. “This is weird isn’t it? I’m supposed to not be as calm about this right?” Anne nodded and Dan shook his head. Eddie laughed. “I guess we’ve been together like this for this a while, I don’t even think about it. It’s just something that happens.” 

Dan said thoughtfully, “I think maybe, what happened to you was not the result of your permanent bond, but perhaps this process of joining as one and then pulling apart again. I think that maybe each time you come together and pull apart you mix on a molecular scale, a genetic one. When you pull apart a part of you swaps with Venom.” 

Venom appeared out of Eddie’s shoulder to say, **“That is an interesting idea Dan. We have seen our kind merge like how Eddie and I do, but typically we feed on a host and move on. The time spent inside is not as extensive as our relationship has been.”**

Anne asked, “Why do you use up your hosts? Wouldn’t it make more sense to live with them? That way you didn’t have to constantly move?” 

Venom smiled. **“Wouldn’t it?** He used Eddies throat to make a deep chuckle. **“Now that kind of thinking is exactly what gets your line culled.”**

“Killed for making sense. I guess that’s not a unique human trait after all,” Anne said and crossed her arms. “So what now?” 

Eddie didn’t have a solid answer. “I guess we’ll keep living. We know how the wings happened. Mystery solved. But Dan can’t operate and remove them, so I guess they’re staying.” 

Dan said, “I would like to keep taking samples and running tests if you don’t mind. Maybe once a month. To track the progression of any gene flow between you two. See if the amount goes down or up.” 

Eddie and Venom shared another glance then agreed. “I would like that, thank you Dan.” 

“Eddie one last question. When you argued, you looked like you were mid shift. Was that you in control or Venom?” 

“Oh, that’s me.” Eddie walked over closer to Dan and held out his hand. “I can do this without Venom’s help.” Dan watched as Eddie’s fingers rippled and extended and his nails hardened and turned to claws. He flipped his hand over so the palm side was facing up then back over. “Maybe this should have been a huge tip off that something was wrong. Or that it was me the whole time that grew the wings.” His hand shifted back to a normal hand and he pulled up his lip and exposed his teeth and gums. “I can grow the fangs in too without his help. They’re mostly controlled by my emotions though. If I’m angry, or really scared, or sometimes even excited they’ll drop down. I have to watch myself around others. People don’t tend to notice the slight changes, like an enlarged canine or incisor, but when they all go… people notice that.” 

“Absolutely fascinating. You’re truly amazing, you know that Eddie?” 

“Ah, haha, glad someone thinks so.” The thought made him uneasy, he shifted his weight and said, “I don’t notice some of the differences anymore. It’s just how I am.” Venom pressed his face to the back of Eddie’s neck. “I suppose that’s V’s fault. He’s very good at making this whole thing seem natural.” 

**Because it is natural Eddie. I am a Klyntar, and you are my host.**

“Still wish I had known ahead of time that this would happen.” 

**Would have told you if I had known. Like I said. We’re in uncharted territory.**

“Uncharted territory huh? I’ll have to learn to be ok with that.” 

Dan and Anne walked Eddie and Venom out of the hospital. They set up dates to come back and give more samples, they also set up two movie nights and a trip to a local bar for Wednesday night trivia. The three of them killed trivia night, between Dan’s biological and medical knowledge, Anne’s legal knowledge, and the bottomless pit of random information that made up Eddie’s mind there was hardly a night they went home without winning. 

Once they were on their bike again Eddie had a moment to focus on everything that was said earlier. “So we’re influencing each other?” 

**It would seem so.**

“How do you feel about that?”

 **Indifferent. I would make a joke about becoming an inferior human, but I’m bonded to one…** Venom’s voice trailed off inside Eddie’s mind. **I don’t mind what is happening. Like I said before, Klyntar don’t have a history, culture, or shape of their own. All we are comes from our host. You are giving me shape. You are giving me purpose and history. I love it. I love you. I love us.**

Eddie nodded. “I love us too,” he said quickly, automatically. It was a reply built out of habit, but it wasn’t a lie. “I’m scared V, I said that before. I’m scared of turning into an inhuman monster. But…” Eddie could feel the emotions that Venom was sending him. “But you’re confident that won’t happen.”

**It won’t happen because I am not a monster, we are not a monster. So even if you become more like us you will never be a monster.**

“You’re absolutely sure you’ve never heard of something like this happening before?” 

**To my knowledge, I have never heard of this happening. But you must understand, I must make this clear Eddie. I have not seen anyone of my kind attempt to do what we are doing. Just thinking of it nearly got me killed and probably will get every Klyntar related to me killed. Before I was brought to Earth I spent a countless amount of time on a seeding asteroid so I-**

“Hey hold up. You said you were on an asteroid right?” This had bothered Eddie for a while but he never got the chance to ask. “How would that work? The asteroid would burn up in the atmosphere of the planet of you were planning on invading and you’d all die.” 

**Eddie.** Venom’s voice was near a deadpan. **We were not hanging out on the outside of the asteroid. We were deep inside and this asteroid was huge and dense. It wouldn’t break up in re-entry. The Klyntar are not stupid. Though typically we use invasion ships.**

“Why didn’t you this time?” 

**Resources,** Venom replied simply. **The current Homeplanet I left behind was nearly vacant. Not much was left, everyone was dying. The seeding asteroids were a last ditch effort to find a suitable planet. That was why Riot was so desperate to get a ship and leave as soon as possible. We needed to get back home, alert the others, move quickly.**

“I want to feel bad,” Eddie started, “but I honestly can’t. Your species sounds like it deserves to die.”

Venom wanted to argue, but he couldn’t even make a strong case for his own kind. **If given the opportunity to kill them all I would do it without hesitation.**

“So then, if the asteroids hit a planet without space travel…”

**We reproduce asexually so we would start over. That’s why Drake and the others reported that there were hundreds of my kind inside that asteroid.**

“So… you don’t miss anyone?” 

Venom was quick to reply. **Klyntar don’t work like that. We don’t develop close interpersonal relationships. We don’t form bonds with other Klyntar. There’s a hierarchy built on strength, who is the most aggressive, who has the best leadership abilities. But that’s about all. You’re either important or just another Klyntar.**

“What were you?”

**Just another Klyntar.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Another update!  
> I hammered this one out in two sittings, I was on a roll.  
> Typically I don't update this quickly...
> 
> So lets pretend that technology is cool enough to run entire gene sequencing and get an entire genome. Let's just pretend that ok? It makes my bullshit science easier, (I'm well aware that it takes ages to sequence a full organism and we have very few examples of that being done)  
> What Dan's little program did was something similar to running a BLAST Sequence for protein and amino acid comparisons in a set of DNA. I did quite a few of these in genetics lab for fruit flies. But instead of looking at individual genes this did the entire genome. Again, lets just pretend this technology exists yeah? hahaha.
> 
> The idea I've had from the start, and that some of you guessed, was that Venom's Klyntar DNA was creeping in and merging with Eddie's, creating something new. The wings are indeed Eddie's, he grew them himself with no input from Venom, but the blueprints for such wings come from the stored genetic data of the Klyntar. From waaaaay the fuck back when they were first created by Knull. Many of them had wings and weren't just the rainbow blobs we know of today. (Or at least that's what I thought. Maybe the ones in those panels just took over creatures with wings, but Venom could manifest his own so I'm going to assume they all used to be able to do that)
> 
> I'm not the best with arguments. There were several versions of it in my head and I wasn't sure which one flowed the best. It might seem like it diffused pretty fast but when you're connected at an emotional level that happens. If the fight leaves one partner the other can feel it instantly and know it's over. Let me know if it reads ok. I can also go in and edit it if it's not right. I've done major scene edits before if it doesn't read well, I don't mind.
> 
> I also sorta changed how I want the combined form of Venom to look and sound. It's been a few months since I wrote the first chapter, where they were Venom. And I think I like the idea of the host dissolving into the Klyntar more. It makes the most sense when you think about how in the movie you can see down Venom's throat just moments after he covers up Eddie's face. That shouldn't be a thing... so now I've decided that there are two ways they form Venom. The first is to just wear the Klyntar like a suit, the way it's done most commonly in the comics, and the other is to have the host dissolve and become one with the Klyntar. Organs, bones, everything blends in and becomes a new organism. I'm not really going to change anything in the first chapter to reflect this, I suppose just treat it as them doing type 1. From now on though it will mostly be Eddie disappearing into Venom.
> 
> This chapter is shorter than the other, at 17 pages, but I had to cut it here because the next chain of events can't be divided and they're going to be very long. I'm setting up the main problem to be overcome in the fic and it'll take a while. However once it's introduced the climb to overcome and the resolution are pretty streamlined and easy to write. I don't expect them to take very long. 
> 
> That's enough out of me, as always, leave a comment letting me know what you think. Did you like the chapter? Hate it? Neutral? Let me know. I live for feedback, but don't feel pressured, even just a "This was cool," or "Can't wait for more!" mean a lot to me. I like to know that return readers are engaged with the writing. I know it sounds selfish but... eh. Fuck it. haha


	5. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

As the days passed they fell into an easy routine. Before the sun rose they’d leave their apartment and fly out far into the ocean. There Eddie could practice flying maneuvers away from the sight of others. Then they’d come home, shower, and get ready for work. Sometimes that took them to prisons, but mostly it lead them to libraries were they could access local records. Sometimes Eddie would go to a coffee shop just to write in a place that wasn’t his apartment. After work was dinner and then their nightly patrols. Eddie was still in love with the idea of being a superhero of sorts, even if the people they saved screamed in terror. It made him feel good and Venom loved to humor him. Before bed they’d go out flying. 

It felt so natural to work the wings in with their daily schedule. So much so that Eddie had nearly forgotten a time before them. This pleased Venom to no end, he loved being in the sky and he loved the way his host looked with the new additions. Sometimes he wondered if he was remembering sensations or instincts long lost to his kind. Other times he figured he was just more broken than even his fellow Klyntar thought. 

This morning they were out over the ocean practicing banking and tight turns. Eddie was still having troubles with them, especially when they got into the city landscape. They didn’t want anymore accidents while trying to land or fly between buildings. They had been tracking the local news and online cryptid community for the past week and no other footage of them seemed to have surfaced. At least, not of their winged form. There were a few more hastily snapped focused that showed them out of focus and running up the side of a building. Eddie wasn’t pleased but neither of them had any idea of how to fix the problem. 

Eddie banked hard and felt the strain on the muscles that lined his back and the new ones that stretched out across his chest. He pumped against the open air and leveled back out. “That’s rough V, I don’t know how many times I can do that.” 

Venom thought about the issue and said, **Do not freak out, but we have a solution. This is me not you.**

There was sensation of Venom bubbling up over his skin and sliding down his back. “What are you up to?” Eddie tried to glance behind him and tilted his wings down so he could see better. “V no.” 

**It will help, trust me. We will work together.**

Eddie sighed and gave in. “Ok you made yourself into a tail what’s that supposed to do?” 

**Not just a tail, but we’ve connected up with your wings giving them more spread. Try that bank again.**

“Alright.” Eddie prepared himself, gained a little bit of altitude to get used to the new connection points of his wings before he stiffened them and turned. He tilted his body so his wings were pointing straight up and down and bent into the turn. The wind pulled and strained at his wings and muscles but then the pressure lessened and he felt like he was cutting through air instead of pushing against it. Venom was using the tail like a rudder and it helped stabilize them and allowed Eddie to turn in tighter and tighter turns. 

Venom could feel Eddie begin to pull out of it and flare his wings out to catch open air and go back to gliding. So Venom moved his body so that when they pulled out it was smooth and not as jarring as it sometimes was. He sent Eddie the request to turn left and Eddie obliged and tilted the other way. He angled the tail and together they carved through the sky in wide graceful arcs. **I’m going to make a fan at the end to help with altitude gaining.**

“Alright let's try that out.” Eddie had to admit that the rudder was working far better than he expected. He tilted his wings and pulled up and pumped them hard to start their climb. He could feel the powerful fan behind him that not only pushed more air under them but also stabilized them. Together their speed nearly doubled. “This is fantastic!” Eddie called into the wind which whipped the words away from his mouth. 

Eddie leveled out and they hung high up in the air. His wings churning open air like he was treading water. From their height they could hardly make out the shoreline or any details. He wiped the sweat that had collected on his forehead and looked at his watch. “We should head home V, this has been great but it’s getting late.” 

**Agreed. You’re also tiring.**

He had to agree with that, he hadn’t noticed how tired he was getting. “Good call.” He pushed down once hard and dipped into a dive. It wasn’t a steep dive like he normally would do, but a nice and easy decent that they could enjoy. Eddie played the wind off of his wings and turned their flight pattern into a lazy spiral. Venom had receded back into his body and joined his thoughts with more contentment. 

“Hey V?” 

**Yeah?**

“You know how a while back you were saying how you were a loser among your kind?” 

**Going to rub it in? You’re still a pretty big loser too.**

“Ouch I’m hurt.” Eddie laughed. “No I was just thinking about it.” 

**I know. I can read your thoughts remember?**

“Hey what about that personal privacy talk we had?” Venom sent him the image of someone rolling their eyes. “Anyways, I was thinking that maybe you aren’t the deviation, maybe the rest of your kind is.” 

**Sounds unlikely.** Venom grumbled. **The majority doesn’t just flop over and become the minority that easily.**

“I mean what if there’s like… a history that you don’t know about? A history that was erased by those who wanted to conquer planets? I've been thinking about us, and how we’re living. What we are, that doesn't line up with how a species that conquers would be.”

**Exactly. We are the aberration.**

“No, V, what if we aren't? What if this what Klyntar are supposed to be and the reason you're culled out for this behavior is that those in power want to stay in power?”

**That doesn't make any-**

“V shut up for a moment and think about what I'm saying. Long term bonds, committing to one host forever, changing that host to become something new, to adapt to a new environment. That's what we're doing, and I think that's how it's supposed to be.” He could feel Venom disagree so he twisted and banked hard in the air to cut him off with the sudden change in momentum. “I’m not saying I’m right, I’m asking you to consider it.” 

**For what reason? What would this do or change?**

“Ultimately? Nothing. You’re right there. But there’s a battle you’re fighting with yourself, I can feel it and you can’t hide. Despite everything we have, even though you’re so happy, you still see yourself a failure-”

**Stop.**

Eddie pushed back and said, “No. Because you know what? I don’t think you’re the wrong one.”

**It doesn’t matter what _you_ think.**

There was a low growl in Eddie’s throat, he could feel it vibrate within his neck. He took a deep breath and said, “I know you don’t mean it like that. Just think about the possibility? We might be a throwback to a time in your species past that doesn’t exist anymore.” 

Venom was quiet and felt the change in pressure as Eddie went back into a gentle dive. As much as he wanted to disregard everything Eddie had said as nonsense, there was a piece of him that knew he might be onto something. **There are… memories…** Venom admitted. **Bits of something that I was never taught. Klyntar have a genetic memory, I don’t recall if I told you.**

“You didn’t, no. Care to elaborate?” 

**Getting there. I’m seeing things, no that’s not right, feeling things? Sensations, pieces of a language I’ve never heard. I think they might be memories from early in my line. The start of my lineage. Things I don’t think I’m supposed to remember.** Venom could feel the interest spike in Eddie. The human parts of their shared mind sending inquisitive feelers into the Klyntar part. **Each generation of Klyntar is born with a connection to the Hive and the memories of the past. Everything we learn we pass on to our offspring. This shared connection of history is weakened with generation, there’s a limit to the amount of information that can be passed down. Typically it is the older things that get forgotten. Eventually generation one thousand gets a full wipe, essentially a reset of the line.**

“What generation are you?” 

**Nine hundred and ninety eight. What I’m getting at, is that I think I might be remembering something from the start of the line. And I think you’re remembering it to, or at least picking up on it. And _maybe_ what we’re both remembering is something that the newer Klyntar tried to purge out.**

“There’s nothing special about the nine hundred and ninety eighth line right? No super powers?” Venom chuckled deep in his spine and sent a negative. “I just have this feeling, is all. That we aren’t _wrong_.” 

**That’s what everyone thinks.**

\---

**Why are we here?**

Eddie pulled up a chair at a desk in the library. He made sure that he sat with his back to the wall in a less frequented part of the building. The desk he was at had a wood front that extended down to the floor. This allowed Eddie to have V shift the shirt pattern so his wings could droop down to the floor in a more relaxed position. 

“We are here because I needed a quiet place to do research.” 

**I know that. But on what? You published your latest article two days ago and we haven’t interviewed anyone new. Are you doing background research on our next?**

“No, this isn’t for an article. We didn’t… When the Life Foundation fell we never looked into it. I think we were both processing our various trauma’s poorly. Then we got swept up in our lives again and just never…” Eddie ran a hand through his hair. “For a reporter I really fell down on this.” 

**So you’re looking into Life?** Eddie sent a confirmation through their bond and focused on the computer screen. They were alone but he didn’t want to talk too much. **Why now?**

“It concerns me that there are people who still know of your existence.” 

Venom was reading Eddie’s thought path and said, **Many people saw us that night. Many people saw Venom. There are video and pictures… but you’re not talking about them?**

“I am not,” Eddie said. “The labs, there were others that weren’t Dr. Skirth. Speaking of Skirth we haven’t heard from her either, I’m worried.” It wasn’t easy to track down the information he needed. The Life Foundation had purged their website and the company that bought their assets weren’t going public with what exactly was bought and sold. Eddie called the Morrin Corporation once and was placed on the endless cycle of holds and transfers. He had let Venom wait on the phone while he continued to search the internet. 

Luckily his journalist circle were the corporate paranoiac types and he was able to locate an archiving site that specialized in backing up the websites of high profile companies. He knew he’d owe Upshur one for giving him the site. It was a deep web site to help shield it from people who would move to have it taken down. There were always those in high places that didn’t like their dirty laundry being aired out for people to see. But thankfully there were also those who specialized in finding that dirty laundry before it reached the cleaners.

After reading through several pages of their website, mostly lies Eddie was beginning to realize, he found the staff page. It was broken up between the different labs, each one with a different focus. He browsed a few of them for his own curiosity before finding the staff page for the space biology department. “Hey,” Eddie whispered to Venom, “do you recognize any of these people?”

Venom popped his head out of Eddie’s body, safely hidden behind the computer screen as he looked at the names and faces that scrolled by. He sent mental confirmations whenever Eddie hovered over one. **That one,** Venom said and pointed to a smiling woman. **She was the second in command of the project.**

“Paloma Nores?” He studied her face and asked, “What do you remember about her? Think she was one of the ones on the roof?” 

**Not sure. I’m having problems remembering much from that night. There was so much pain and the suits they were wearing, couldn't get a scent off of them.**

Eddie nodded and absent mindedly rubbed between Venom’s eye spots. “I’m ninety percent certain that the people on that roof that ambushed us were ex Life Foundation members. I just have no way to prove it.” 

**I recognize many of these people Eddie. Through the glass I watched them. I don’t think they were aware we were intelligent.**

“Drake called you “higher beings”.” 

Eddie’s chest rumbled in a chuckle that wasn’t his. **Carlton Drake was a fool. We were property, his play things. He only saw us as more _after_ Riot got ahold of him. At best the scientists saw us as animals. At worst we were objects.**

“Why didn’t you reach out?” Eddie asked. They so very rarely discussed Venom’s time in the laboratory. He didn’t like to talk about it and Eddie didn’t like to push. “I’ve been wondering that for a while. You spoke to me pretty quick, I’m sure one of your other hosts could have communicated to Drake that you were sapient.” 

Venom didn’t answer. Instead he slunk back inside of Eddie. “Venom?” Still more silence. “Did I say something wrong? V?”

 **We tried,** Venom said finally. **All of us. But our hosts, they were not good matches, most died far too fast. The ones that didn’t… they couldn’t hear us. A few could but thought they were going crazy.**

“I… I didn't know.”

 **I never told you.** Venom went quiet again. **Eddie?**

“Yeah?”

**I was… glad when you could hear me.**

“I gotta admit that freaked me out the first time.” He remembered shoving himself away from the sink with such force that he knocked himself out. It was a humorous memory now.

**Just thankful my voice was heard. I don’t know if you understand how much that meant to me.** He watched Eddie scroll through more names and faces. **That one is dead.** Venom said in regards to a male scientist. **Drake fed him into Screech.**

“Screech?”

**Another Klyntar. Progenitor to Scream. I knew Scream, Screech not as much. They were very traditional, like Riot.**

“Who was your… progenitor?”

**Malice.**

“Mine were Carl and Jamie Brock,” Eddie offered up. 

**So the Brock part, that gets passed down?**

“Yeah. You can change it though, if you want. I take it your “lines” all have similar names? Or themes?”

**Correct. I was named Venom not for the type of toxin, but for the feeling of being malicious, after my progenitor. They descended from Spite, who came from Animosity. And so on and so forth. Though, like humans we can choose to start a new… theme as you put it.**

“You don't act like a Venom,” Eddie said. “Interesting stuff to learn. Humans sometimes name their kids after them too. We really aren't so different sometimes. If you had a kid what would you name it?"

Venom hesitated in replying. **I... I uh... I already had-** He cut himself off. **I had never thought about it.** He replied instead. **Since coming to Earth I'm not sure what I would call it.**

"Something new perhaps? To signal a new line?" Venom gave an appreciative hum at the thought. "Who did Riot come from?”

**Revolution.**

Eddie snorted. “That sounds like a line who is full of themselves.”

**It's a line of leaders.**

“And yours?”

**A line of nobodies. Where do you think all of our contempt and animosity was aimed? We were not high on the Klyntar social tree and with each new member we sunk lower and lower.**

“So you have like, a caste system?” Eddie could feel Venom's confusion and sent him the definition.

**No. Sort of. It's hard to explain. Individuals can rise above their line, it's happened before. There is nothing stopping them. But many of our abilities are linked to our genetics. Healing lines produce healers, drones produce drones again so forth. So to rise above your line you have to be extremely lucky.**

“Healers? Like doctors?” 

**Klyntar that are very good at healing hosts, they understand more bodies than the average. They’re very important during takeover events. We use them to keep key leaders alive so they can give orders to keep the local populations calm. It’s vital to keep the population calm because some species turn to mass suicide to avoid-**

“Fascinating stuff really, but I uh, I don’t want to talk about this.” Eddie shifted uncomfortably. He knew that Earth was so close to being just another thing the Klyntar trampled over on the quest to consume the galaxy. He felt Venom radiate unease from reading his thoughts. “So,” he said to change the subject, “There are other aliens out there right? How do human’s stack up?” 

There was a rumble from his chest and a ripple of amusement in his mind. **I would like to say that you humans are stunning and a cut above the rest… But, no. There are many more impressive species out there than you.** Venom popped out of Eddie’s chest again and found his face cupped gently. **However, your affection can’t be beat.**

Venom’s grin grew wider when Eddie leaned down to place a kiss on his head. “Mmmm, so we’re the best lovers?” 

**I didn’t say that.** Venom laughed while Eddie frowned. **I said affection.** He rumbled with laughter and added, **You really can’t beat the triple orgasms of the Adir. The amount of pure pleasure they radiate, we could feed off of it for forever…**

“Something tells me the Adir aren’t alive anymore are they?” 

**They are not.** Venom sounded sad about that. Eddie couldn’t tell if that was because he was remorseful over a species being wiped out by their quest of conquest or if he just missed the good sex. **The tentacles of the Erell were also far better than what you humans are equipped with.**

“Is it uh, is it common for your kind to have sex while bonded to the host species?”

 **Some of the requirements for our kind are strong chemicals linked to emotions. Sex is an easy way to get said chemicals. It’s not the first or even preferred method, but it’s common enough.** Venom chucked in Eddie’s chest. **What we’re doing is uncommon. Love, romance, coexisting, that’s strange.**

“Is it kinky?” 

**Absolutely perverse.**

\--- 

It was late when they left the library. Eddie only abandoned the computer because Venom was hungry. They both knew that he was prone to losing himself to research, so it was nice to have a voice in his head remind him to eat or sleep. The sun had already dipped below the horizon line. 

Even with the help of the archiving website they weren’t able to learn much. Eddie had written down the names of all the employees that Venom remembered seeing frequently. But most of them seemed to have vanished out of the public eye. Social media accounts were long dead, nothing on search engines, and Morrin, the company that bought the Life Foundation didn’t have of the scientists on their list on their “meet the staff” page. That could be simply because these particular scientists would be working with sensitive information, or Morrin feared potential negative media backlash. _If they were worried about that,_ Eddie thought, _Then they shouldn’t have purchased the company._

 **What if they pooled their resources together and went off the grid?** Venom suggested. 

Eddie considered it and got on his motorcycle. “It’s possible. Depending on how well Drake was paying. Startups in California aren’t cheap, but if they get enough people together it might be doable. If they found even one outside source for money the odds of that being what happened would increase dramatically.” 

“I’ll message a few journalist friends of mine, most of them are talking to me again. Ask them to keep a few eyes and ears open for any mentions of new medical startups or if one of these names pops up.” 

Venom’s voice rumbled in his mind. **It is very possible that Carlton Drake fed all of the scientists to one of the other Klyntar, or had them killed before he launched the rocket.**

“Would he do that?” The question seemed dumb, of course he would do that. 

**He cared not if the people he sacrificed were his own or not.** Venom mused, **No wonder he and Riot bonded so strongly.**

“So he was feeding in his own people if they didn’t agree with what he was doing?” 

**Yes.**

“I wonder if that’s what happened to Skirth?” Venom didn’t reply, but from the sound of things, it was a very real possibility. It bothered Eddie, but it wouldn’t be the first time he had heard of Whistleblowers dying to shed light on the truth. Whistleblowers were people that he both admired and pitied. At least when he went digging he knew what the risks were and when he’d be putting himself in harm’s way.

**Then why were you shocked when Drake chewed you up and spat you out?**

“I…” Eddie frowned. “I shouldn’t have been. I just… I made some mistakes with Drake. Didn’t take him seriously enough, put too much faith in the trust I had rebuilt between myself and my editor. I should have known better. I should have covered my ass better, shouldn’t have told the truth about my source, should have claimed it was an anonymous whistleblower. I don’t know why I didn’t.” 

**You made a mistake. Everything worked out in the end.**

“I guess it did,” Eddie said. Then something hit him. “Hey, if I hadn’t been fired and lost all credibility among my peers we never would have met.” Venom agreed and was about to reply when something actually hit him. Hard. In the side. 

It was enough to toss him off of his bike and into oncoming traffic. Venom slid over Eddie and shot a tentacle out to stop an oncoming car from flattening them. Eddie was still disoriented and could feel Venom lift his body up and start moving it out of the road. “What happened?” He managed to say. 

Out of the corner of their eyes Venom spotted three people in lab coats. **The people from the roof. Shot you with something, it was wide, not moving fast enough to punch through the skin, just enough force to knock you from your bike.**

They made it across the street, Eddie could feel Venom healing broken bones under his skin. “If they’re back then the-” he was cut off by a force of a far less physical kind. Venom roared in agony and retreated into Eddie. “Fucking sound cannons,” Eddie spat out his words and a bit of blood from his mouth. He ran into the closest alleyway and asked, “Can you give me footclaws? I can do my hands, but I need footclaws to scale this building.” He didn’t bother saying the rest of his plan, he just sent it to Venom mentally. 

He got a confirmation through their bond and he could feel his feet shift into their larger, clawed form. “Thanks,” he grunted and leapt onto the wall. The claws on his hands caught the brick and he heaved himself up. Climbing up buildings was a lot easier when they were Venom, but Eddie had practiced and had the upper body strength to haul himself up.

Once on the roof Eddie didn’t stop to take a breather, he ran for the opposite edge and jumped. Venom moved out of he way so Eddie could unfurl his wings and catch the air. He pumped them hard to gain altitude fast. “Who the fuck are those guys?” 

**If we catch one we’ll ask.**

“I’m not sure I even want to get close enough to try.” Eddie was high above the city now but his heart was still pounding. “Are you hurt?” 

**The canons were more powerful this time. I am fine, but I don’t think I could withstand many of those in a row.**

“Understood, let’s just put as much distance as we can between them and us.” Venom expressed extreme concern that their home was no longer safe. “Agreed, there’s no way they _don’t_ know where we live by now. This was another ambush, they know our routes.” 

**One of our safe houses then?**

“Yes, the one on-” 

**Bank hard to the right!** Venom’s voice boomed in Eddie’s head and he scrambled to push his wings against the current and turn hard. Something flew past them at a dizzying speed. Eddie took two downbeats of pause to check what it was. Venom screamed in his mind to dive before he could get a confirmation. Eddie obeyed without hesitation and pulled his wings in to start the dive. He could feel Venom rise out of his shoulder and through his eyes he could see something pursuing them. **It’s a human,** Venom reported. **A human on what looks like a disc.**

“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Like a hoverboard?” Venom sent him a confirmation and Eddie swore. “I didn’t think those things were real.” He pulled out of the dive and skimmed the air just above the rooftops. At Venom’s suggestion he dipped down into chaotic maze of alleyways and airspace between buildings. 

The plan was to lose them in the hard to maneuver areas and vanish. Eddie had to put all of his focus into navigating the stale air and sometimes unstable currents. He took a tight turn right and pushed off of a wall with his feet to avoid crashing into it. He could feel the tip of his right wing brush against brick. **They’re still behind us,** Venom said. 

“Great,” Eddie said and took another tight corner. He ducked under some hanging laundry and got a bit too close to the ground than he liked. A few people he heard gasp when they came out over a major road and flew back into an opposite alley. Eddie poured on as much speed as he dared but their pursuer seemed to have no trouble keeping pace. He wasn’t even sure where he was in the city, he was only focused on not crashing into buildings.

 **Stop!** Eddie pushed his wings forward and straightened his posture to backpedal, but apparently that was enough for Venom because two large clawed hands shot out of from his side and gripped the buildings, leaving deep claw marks in the brick and concrete. One of the people on a hovering disc dropped down where they would have been if Venom hadn’t warned them. He flung Eddie backwards and shouted for him to fly. 

He didn’t need to be told twice and pumped his wings and took the first corner they could. Eddie tried to confuse them by going in a rough circle around them. It seemed to have worked at first but then through Venom’s eyes he saw their two pursuers spot them from above. Eddie pulled his wings in tight and slipped through a fire-escape before he pushed off the wall and and flew for another alleyway, this one was darker and had a bit of cover. 

Venom took over and they dropped from the sky. They ran out into a main street before Venom dropped to all fours and adopted a galloping gait. From ground level they were able vanish into smaller back alleys and places that Eddie couldn’t fly through. Both of them knew they were running on instinct. They had never been hunted before, this feeling was new. If they were both thinking straight they would have stopped and shifted back to a normal form and tried to blend in with the average human. But panic was winding its way deep into their mind and twisting into their fear.

Venom tore through the city, his speed only matched by Eddie’s soaring speed. His tongue lolled out of their mouth as buildings and cars slid by in a dizzying blurr. Most people jumped out of the way but more than a few Venom threw to the side as they blazed past. Venom increased their stride, he could feel their heart beating fast but they weren’t in any danger of exhaustion. He glanced behind them and saw one of the people on the flying disc hoovering not too far behind. Venom roared and skidded to a stop. He had had enough running. He dug his claws in and scrambled for purchase on the pavement. Then he launched himself at their attacker. He hit them at full force and together they fell to the ground. The flying disc veered off and crashed into a nearby building. Once they hit the ground Venom tore into the person with sharp claws and even sharper teeth. 

There were a few quick spurts of blood from torn arteries and slashed veins then nothing as the body went still. The people around them screamed in horror as Venom turned to them, maw bloody. Behind the screams he could pick up the sound of another hovering disc fast approaching. He had just enough time to duck into an alley. There were more than they thought. He was prepared to fight them with tooth and claw until he saw more sound cannons. Cannons that would strip him from Eddie in a heartbeat. 

They weren’t sure what to do, Eddie was just as panicked as Venom was. He just kept running desperately trying to lose them. Their luck ran out when they hit a dead end. Venom thrust himself at the wall and pulled them up with huge bounding strokes. Then he turned and jumped.

Eddie could feel their molecules unwind from each other as he became himself and not Venom. The fall didn’t bother him anymore, the rushing wind was comforting. As soon as he was fully himself he spread his wings wide and caught the air. Eddie had had it with dodging power lines and tilted his wings to climb higher in the sky. “We need a new plan!” He shouted at Venom. “Just running isn’t working!” 

He kept beating his wings up to rise higher in the sky. A part of him was worried about getting shot down at this height, but he pushed those thoughts away. In his mind he could feel Venom urging him to bank left. He did and avoided a collision with one of the disc riders who had come up from behind. He twisted in air to avoid another and dove down. **Right!** Eddie turned and pushed to make the turn and then he could feel Venom instructing him to pull up. He did a tight loop and dove. Through Venom’s eyes he could see one of the riders coming. He widened the fingers on his wings and pushed down to neatly avoid the rider. Then Venom gave him an idea. The harbor. 

Eddie started to fly as quickly as he could in the direction of the bay. Sound cannons couldn’t hit them underwater, at least that’s what they hoped. He pulled his wings in and started to plummet at a dizzying speed. Venom took over and Eddie let him cover his body. The hit the water gracefully, hardly making a sound or splash, despite the large distance they fell. 

Once underwater Venom dove down deep into the muck and waited. It was weird being underwater as Venom. A while back they practiced becoming Venom underwater so the Eddie wouldn’t panic. Breathing without their lungs was something that Eddie was not used to. Venom took care of all gas exchange when they weren’t in the open atmosphere. It was a nice trade off since Eddie’s human body had to all the work above the waves. Deep underwater they moved quickly across the bay and kept pausing to see if they could see or sense the people who were chasing them. At first Venom thought he could spot them circling overhead but he wasn’t sure. They sat down in the murky muck. _How long should we stay under here? I’m tempted to say all night. We could go out to sea and eat some fish, crawl out at dawn and make our way to the safe-house._

**We shouldn’t be hiding like prey.**

_Eddie sent him a visual of himself rolling his eyes. _I’d rather hide than risk losing you.__

__

__

**You won’t lose me. Our bond is strong, cosmically strong. There’s nothing to lose because we are one.**

_That’s sweet, it really is. But you said yourself, those cannons can and will rip us apart._

**Even if we are separated physically, nothing can truly separate us. We will always be tethered, always find our way back.**

Eddie released all of the terror and anxiety he had been holding back. It flooded their bond and nearly overwhelmed Venom. _You can’t come back to me if you’re dead! Or if I’m dead! Venom if you get separated from me you'll die! I'm not willing to risk that._

There wasn’t a response to that, just the sound of water moving in waves. **I will not die.** Eddie didn’t bother replying to that. **Promise.**

_Don’t make promises you can’t keep._

**Eddie? I...** He trailed off before he stood up and felt their feet sink into the sediment. **We are going to have to fight them. We are going to have to kill them. They escalated things.**

His voice shaky, Eddie replied, _I agree._ This wasn’t what he wanted, he knew Venom knew that. _If we’re going to do this, let's do it quick._

Venom swam through the water and broke the surface just enough to see. They were dark and inky and blended in with the water. They popped up near the Golden Gate Bridge and Venom hopped up onto one of the supports. From there he was easily able to hook his claws in and climb the structure. Once at the top they both took a breather. In the distance they could see what remained of the Life Foundation. _We should investigate the building. Reports claim that it’s been abandoned, but now I’m not so sure._

Eddie and Venom separated so that Eddie could shake his wings out. The wind was howling at this height and it pulled at Eddie’s hair and tugged at his wings. Together he and Venom scanned the skies looking for any sign of their pursuers. “I don’t like this,” Eddie said. “They gave up too fast.”

**Which means they didn’t give up.**

Even through the sound of the wind Eddie was able to pick up the sound of near silent thrusters. “V…” Then the scent of human filtered through his nose, too fresh to have come from below. **Jump!** Eddie threw himself from the part of the bridge he was gripping. Their moment of rest over. He twisted in mid air to get a look at the two people on hover discs before he flipped back over and flew under the bridge in a graceful arc. He came up on the other side and in a few strong downbeats was positioned above one of their attackers.

Venom took over, their full weight hitting the person on the back. He took two of his disemboweling claws and plunged them through the human’s back. They heard the person cry out in pain and the hover disc started to spiral out of control. To be safe Venom gripped the person’s neck and drew his claws across their throat, spilling blood and tearing through their airways. The person would be dead by the time they hit the ground.

They leapt from the disc and Venom receded to let Eddie fly again. He flew between the suspension cables, weaving around them while the final attacker tried to get a bearing on what had just happened to their partner. They could feel the incoming waves from one of the sound cannons firing. Eddie easily dodged it now that he knew what to detect. They had to get the last one then they’d be free to vanish to their safe-house.

Eddie broke from the cables and cleared the top of the support tower and dove back down. They were both so focused on the air cannons that they didn’t see the group of people gather below them. They didn’t hear the gunshot and couldn’t dodge the bullet that tore through Eddie’s right lung and part of his heart. **Eddie!**

Venom went to work, fixing the damage and linking severed arteries. But Eddie was falling, losing altitude fast. Then he too erupted in pain when sound cannons were fired in their direction. He roared in agony and tried to stay with Eddie. Disoriented he couldn’t stop their fall.

Eddie hit the street below hard. He felt and heard one of his wings snap as he bounced off the pavement and rolled to a stop. Pain lit his brain aflame and he cried out. At the same moment they hit the ground several waves of high frequency sound washed over them. Eddies ears were ringing so badly his own screams were drowned out. There was a terrible tearing sensation that went molecule deep. Indescribable pain coursed through Eddie in waves as Venom was torn from his body.

The Klyntar oozed from his mouth, eyes, nose, ears and very pores. Venom weakly tried to attach himself back to his host but another blast from a high frequency sound wave sent him reeling away in pain. He couldn’t scream in that form, couldn’t make any sounds but he was in pure agony.

Even severed physically Eddie could still feel Venom’s pain. He cried out and forced his eyes open. His hand reached for him and he saw Venom try to reach back, a tendril slipping out to meet his finger. Through the tears he could see several people in lab coats approach. Sound cannons and guns at the ready. One of them produced a thick glass canister from a bag and placed it on the ground.

“D-Don’t,” Eddie forced his abused lungs to push out air and form words. “Don’t.”

Venom tried to recover from the shock of having his physical bond severed so violently and the aftershocks from the sound waves. He waved a few tendrils in a desperate attempt to look threatening. Another blast forced him to slither towards the open canister. It shut behind him with a hydraulic hiss. 

Eddie’s back was on fire, metaphorically speaking, his injured wing was making it nearly impossible to think. “Don’t take him!” Eddie shouted and tried to stand. He was kicked roughly in the gut and he curled in on himself. “You can’t! He’s… he’s all I have!” That wasn’t exactly true but at the moment it seemed like his whole life was being taken from him. “Please,” he croaked out between sobs he didn’t want to escape. “Please don’t. We didn’t _do_ anything. Please.” 

He got no response but he heard one person ask another, “Should we shoot him?”

“No, the man’s been mutated, it won’t be long before someone else picks him up.”

A third voice asked, “Perhaps we should pick him up? Could be useful to study.”

“That would be unwise. I don’t want these two in the same state, never mind the same building. If Brock’s mutations were caused by the creature then we’ll see similar results in the lab. That is, if we don’t kill the thing first.”

Desperation and an intense desire to protect Venom surged through Eddie. He forced himself to his knees and lunged at the nearest person in a lab coat. Claws he wasn’t aware he could still summon ripped through fabric and found their home in flesh. He wrenched his hand back and pulled. From the way the person screamed he knew he cut deep. Good. 

The butt of a rifle struck his head and he saw black spots cloud his vision. The earth seemed to lurch underneath him as his body swayed and collapsed. He could hear shouting, the squeal of tires on pavement and the slamming of heavy doors. The last thing he saw before his vision went dark were people hauling the canister containing Venom into a black armored vehicle. The last thing he heard was a small voice in his head say, **I will find you. We will find us. Eddie, I love you.** Then the world became black and silent.

\---

Dan was ready for a hot shower and a relaxing evening with Anne when his phone rang. Normally he wasn’t one to answer while driving but something compelled him to pick up. “Doctor Dan Lewis speaking,” he was still in professional doctor mode and couldn’t chase it from his speech.

“Mr. Lewis? This is office Bryant with the SFPD,” the voice on the other end seemed rattled for someone who was supposed to be a cop. “We think we have a man, a patient of yours, on the Golden Gate Bridge.”

“My god, who is it? Are they threatening to jump?” Dan didn’t work in psychiatrics, but he knew a lot of people and sometimes the wrong medical contact information was called in emergency situations.

“We don’t know his name, we have a wallet, the only thing of use in it was your business card. It’s a white male, probably mid-thirties. He’s wearing… wings? Some sort of costume wings?”

“Eddie!” Dan said without thinking. “Is he alright?”

“That’s why we’re calling you. We don’t know. He’s running up and down the path screaming. Keeps jumping, like those fake wings will work.”

“What is he saying?”

“Incomprehensible. Listen, is this man dangerous? We blocked off the area, but he looks injured, there’s blood on his hands, chest and and legs. There’s a considerable amount of blood on the pavement nearby. He won’t let anyone get close and we’re considering tasers.”

Dan was quick to say, “No! No tasers!” He had no idea why Eddie was acting this way, why he hadn't flown away, and why Venom hadn’t stepped in and taken him away from people. Something bad had happened he knew it, perhaps a fall? Dan had already turned his car around and said, “Keep him in the area, I’m on my way. Eddie is an… interesting patient of mine. He’s only a danger to himself,” Dan lied and hoped the officer bought it. “Can you tell him I’m coming? Just shout that Dr. Dan is on his way.”

Typically Dan never went above the speed limit but this, he justified, warranted some law breaking. Traffic thankfully agreed with him and he made good time to the bridge. The whole way there he couldn’t stop his mind from creating all kinds of worst case scenarios. He half expected to find Eddie shot up on the pavement or in a body bag. If something was wrong, and he couldn’t control Venom they might have tried to put him down. Cops were twitchy these days, and Venom had already proven to be a threat. While his healing factor should be enough to heal bullet wounds, Dan never asked how quickly it took affect or if there was an upper limit. He wasn’t sure the Klyntar could heal his body if it was turned into swiss-cheese.

He hit the bridge and the blockade and stopped his car. He got out and rushed to the officers on site. “My name is Dan Lewis, I got a call about a patient of mine?”

“We’ve been waiting on, any later and we might have had to take action. An ambulance has been called and is on route.” 

Dan stepped past the roadblocks and followed the officers to a section of the bridge with many, many cop cars. He could already hear Eddie yelling. Like the officer Bryant said, it was incomprehensible. As he got closer he could see Eddie and his heart nearly broke. The other man was clearly disoriented, his gait was unsteady, stumbling, and he kept trying to get airborne. It was suddenly clear that one his wings was broken, the right one. It was bent at unnatural angle, dragged behind him limp, and was leaking blood. His one good wing pumped desperately, trying to churn the air and provide lift, but the broken wing didn’t allow any progress and he fell back to his feet. Dan broke out into a jog to close the distance then a run when he watched Eddie leapt, failed to fly and fell to the ground. 

He reached him just as he was turning to stumble away from the cop cars and bright lights. “Eddie?” Dan stopped a few feet from him. He wasn’t sure what kind of mental state Eddie was in. Once, not too long ago, he almost killed him. He didn’t want a repeat of that with no way to get Eddie to back off. “Eddie,” he said again, “it’s Dan.” Eddie’s eyes were unfocused, almost glazed over with pain and confusion. “Do you know who I am?”

There was a moment of silence and Dan could practically see Eddie try to summon up a connection between them. “Dan?” He said, his voice hoarse from screaming.

“Yes, Dan, you know me, Eddie. Are you ok?” It was a dumb question, Eddie was clearly not alright in the slightest. But if he could get him talking, get him focused on something other than pacing on the bridge, he might be able to figure out what was going on. Eddie had shoved passed him and was continuing his desperate yells for something or someone Dan couldn’t make out. It almost sounded like Eddie was speaking another language. “Eddie!” He shouted above the other man’s hysteric cries. The change in tone stopped the other man dead in his tracks. Dan approached one more time and this time initiated physical contact. He placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Eddie you are hurt, confused, I need to know what happened.”

Eddie’s eyes darted back and forth but Dan wasn’t sure they were focusing on anything. “Dan?” He said again. “They took ‘em,” his voice was so slurred he could hardly make out what he was saying. “They took ‘em, hesgone. He’ssss he, he, gone. Dan. Help.” A bit of clarity returned to Eddie’s expression. “Help. I need help.”

“I’m here, Eddie I’m here.” He shrugged off his jacket and put it around Eddie’s shoulders. He wasn't wearing a shirt. There was a trail of blood leading from what looked like a gunshot wound. “Were you shot?”

“ ‘mby.” Dan ran a hand over his chest and could feel a half healed bullet hole. “Dan my wing hurts.” He couldn’t help but notice that Eddie’s mouth was a combination of Venom’s teeth and his own human ones. 

“You’ve been shot,” Dan tried to stay as calm as he could. He was no stranger to blood or gunshot wounds. “Your wing is broken don’t try to move it. Eddie what happened?”

“Help.”

“I’m _trying_.” Dan took a deep breath. “Ok, let’s get you into my car, take you back to our place.” He started to guide Eddie back towards the police line, and back to the car. The first few steps Eddie took strongly but then his legs seemed to buckle and Dan had to shoulder most of his weight.

One of the officers stopped them, he recognized his voice from the phone. “The ambulance is on its way.”

“Won’t be necessary,” Dan said. “I’m going to take him directly to the hospital.” He saw that the officer was going to object, it was clear that Eddie was in a bad way. “This man can’t afford the cost and I’m already here.” In truth they couldn’t risk bringing Eddie to the hospital. It was bad enough he had whatever meltdown he was having out in public. There would be footage of him, dash cam, civilian, police reports. This wasn’t good. “He’s dehydrated,” Dan said, another lie, “it’s what is causing the confusion and stumbling, he has superficial scrapes on his arms and chest from a fall. It looks worse than it is.”

The jacket Dan placed around Eddie’s shoulders was covering up the jagged piece of bone that was jutting out of the skin and the raw bloody mess that was his back. If he didn’t have the wings Dan would have just lifted him up and carried him to the car. But with how much damage they had taken, he didn’t want to try to figure out where best to put his hands and apply pressure. He got Eddie into the backseat of the car. 

He was surprised by Eddie’s stamina, he was remaining upright, but it was clear he was in immense pain. “You can have Venom come out now,” Dan said as he started the car. “He can start to heal you.” When he checked the back mirror he could see tears rolling down Eddie’s face. “Eddie?” There was no answer.

Dan picked up his phone and hastily dialed Anne. When she picked up he said, “There’s been an emergency. It’s Eddie. He’s in a bad way Anne. Real bad. He’s conscious for the time being, extremely disoriented, didn’t recognize me at first. I need you to grab the medical bag I stashed in the closet in our room. I’m going to need to operate. Yes, operate. On the table. Clear it, and place down the plastic sheeting over the top and around the floor.” 

Anne had asked why Venom wasn’t healing him. Dan looked into the backseat one more time and asked, “Eddie where is Venom?” 

Eddie shook his head and in a voice hardly above a whisper he slurred, “They took him. Venom’s gone.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wings of Change has now reached 100 pages! 
> 
> This chapter was mostly an extended action/chase sequence. I'm not too good with those, but I've been forcing myself to write more of them to get better.  
> This chapter also played host to many of my movie verse Klyntar headcanons. So, I'm now pretty much fully caught up in all the comic lore. I've read so many comics in the past two months it's crazy. What I've decided to do here is blend some Klyntar comic canon with my own headcanons for movie verse. Since the symbiotes all came pre-named in the movie, I've decided that their names are chosen by the progenitor. And that certain lines have themes and genetic abilities. That's why Venom in the movie seemed to only use defensive actions, like creating shields instead of blades or other weapons like Riot. If you know the backstory of the Klyntar in the comics you can probably tell where I'm going with the subtle hints at past memories. 
> 
> School got crazy there for a few weeks and I didn't have much time to type, but I finally got a good chunk of free time today and hammered out the rest of the chapter. Things are going to get interesting from here, for both Eddie and Venom. This is that plot I kept promising everyone was going to happen like eighty pages ago.  
> As always, I thank everyone who leaves comments and feedback on this story. You all really do make all the difference and I love reading what you have to say.  
> Hopefully the next update won't take quite as long, but I say that every time.


End file.
